Rise to Power: From Tinder to Cinder
by the contractor
Summary: CELL operative, Richard Tate, is thrown into Remnant where he meets young, aspiring Cinder Fall. Tate offers to help her achieve her goals by teaching her what he knows. Unknowingly, Tate starts a machiavellian game of high stakes chess. As the forces unleash their pawns and rooks, it becomes clear that the nurtured Queen has the power to take on all the nations, singlehandedly.
1. Chapter 1: Fan into Flame

A loud pop could be heard in the distance, and orange smoke began spewing out of a canister and engulfing the sandbar of a river. An attack helicopter hovered overhead, its rotors rustling the vegetation on the sandbar. Two black ropes slowly unrolled from the helicopter and two soldiers rappelled down and landed on the ground with the sound of a slight jangling of metal.

Team Leader Richard Tate landed, quickly letting go of the rope and lifting his SCAR rifle to his shoulder. The riverbank was thrown into silence, as the helicopter's rotors became nothing but a distant sound as it lazily gained altitude. The only things could be heard were the currents of the river and chirping of birds. Dead bodies were floating on the river with gunshot holes punched through body armor, plating and all. Other soldiers lay face down on the riverbank with arrow shafts sticking out of their backs.

Someone called for backup just before his or her radio echoed with the sound of snapping bone. Now the caller was nowhere to be seen.

"Keep your eyes open." Tate whispered to his squad mate. "Watch my six!" He put his eyes to his optics and scanned the riverbank. He followed the trail of bodies, trying to pinpoint where the assailant could have gone off.

There was nothing. Tate personally would have preferred being dropped into a heavy firefight. Silence was strangely worse.

Slowly, Tate advanced without letting his eyes off his sights. He waded into the river, feeling the cold seep into his legs. The water came up to his waist and gave Tate a false sense of security, like he was being enveloped in a protective blanket. If anything, it helped to still his heart rate.

Behind him, Tate heard a short grunt and then a splash. He whipped around and saw his partner slowly floating up to the surface of the river. Blood ran from his throat, turning the water red around him.

"Shit." Tate muttered to himself. His index finger slowly moved from the side of his gun to the trigger. He narrowed his eyes as he scanned the river currents. At one point of the water, there were two small currents that were going against the main current. Someone was clearly wading in the river with him.

"DIE ASSHOLE!" Tate squeezed the trigger and the staccato thumping of rounds going off broke the silence. First, it was controlled bursts of three. But as Tate panicked, it became a long-drawn out automatic. He saw bullets spark off the figure and the figure de-cloaked briefly every time a round struck it. The figure ran for the riverbank, which Tate could only tell by the reeds on the side of the bank being flattened. Tate's finger dropped quickly to his under-barrel grenade launcher and squeezed the trigger. There was the soft pop of a grenade leaving the barrel before impacting with a deafening explosion in front of the figure. Dirt and dust cascaded in a brief conical shower up in the air, before the wind broke it up into a hazy cloud.

The riverbank once more fell into silence. Tate whipped around back and forth, pointing his gun at everything: the shadows, the branches that were moving due to the wind, the muffled footsteps he seemed to be hearing from everywhere. He started getting a prickly feeling up his spine, and then he realized something.

Something was behind him.

Tate whipped around with his gun, but a hand grabbed the barrel of the gun and yanked it out of his grasp. Seconds later, Tate felt a hand on his throat and then he was lifted off the ground effortlessly. Slowly and surely, the figure de-cloaked revealing a humanoid figure made up of masses and masses of black-coiled muscle. Tate stared directly at the figure's face as he choked for breath. The robotic mask only stared back at him, no emotion showing behind that red visor.

A second later, he felt himself being accelerated through the air, before impacting into something hard. Just before he felt the world become blackness, he had one final thought. He must have gone from 0 to 60 m/s in less than a second.

* * *

Tate woke up and the first thing he noticed was that it wasn't particularly hot. The armor and respirator he was wearing were still suffocating, but not at all like the sweaty armpit of New York's newly formed rainforest. He was surrounded on all sides by trees that seemed more like woodland unlike the tropical forests of New York under the Liberty Dome.

The second thing Tate realized was that he was supposed to be dead. His body should have been broken and crushed against a tree. Tate remembered staring into the face of Prophet before Prophet threw him and probably killed him with the sheer force of the impact. He was for sure dead. There was no way any normal human could have survived that type of kinetic force.

Then, Tate's heart sank. So did he end up in heaven or hell? According to him, he didn't know which category he belonged to. Before being enlisted in CELL to "work" away his debt as a corporate mercenary (beauty of the thing was that no one ever worked away their debt), he was a psychologist. He had done extensive research on people throughout history, and how their personality led to their rise in power. Ironically, he couldn't use his own research to get himself out of his debt pit-hole. He spent much of his life doing what he was told, and didn't go around looking for trouble. So that means he deserved heaven right? Of course, the real question was why heaven was ok with Tate keeping his weapons and grenades from earth.

Tate lifted his cheek off the dirt, and pushed himself to his knees. With a grunt, he tore off his respirator, helmet, shoulder pauldrons, and goggles and left it on a heap in the floor. It would only weigh him down. There was no lingering Ceph viral material here, so none of that stuff would be useful to him anyway. He felt around his backpack and did equipment check. He had his M12 Nova, SCAR, and a couple magazines in pouches on his vest as well as pouches of MREs in his backpack.

He had to get out of this woodland, except he didn't know where he was. "Better to die going somewhere than die sitting here." He muttered to himself. Tate rose to his feet and began walking idly through the forest.

* * *

Tate found soon enough that there were no visible landmarks, and there were no bodies of water to follow.

"This is great. Just fucking great. I'm in hell." The more Tate thought about it, the more his little theory made sense to him. Maybe he was damned to wander the forests forever. He'll be like those restless spirits stuck in houses and historical sites, transparent with nothing inside their bodies but air.

He slumped down on a rock, and put his head in his hands. His stomach rumbled and his throat reminded him that he was parched. Of course, maybe there was no point in eating and drinking anyway. Maybe, the gods of the world drew Tate's judgment from a hat and he probably ended up with Tantalus's punishment.

Tate sat up and kicked a rock down the clearing. The rock rolled down the clearing and came to a stop before a pair of red eyes.

Wait.

Red eyes? Tate stood up quickly with his gun to his shoulder, flicking the safety off. The red eyes lowered and a white head like bone lowered to the ground to nudge the rock with its nose. Then the monster stepped into the clearing.

It was like a grizzly bear, except it looked like a demonized version of it. Its back was jet black and white spines protruded from its back like it was a _damn_ stegosaurus. It's head looked more like a skull than anything, and prominent red vein-like structures was spread across its face like a spider web.

 _I don't give a shit what it is_. Tate opened fire immediately. CELL small-arms technology was definitely no Star Trek high-powered phasers, but its chambered 4 mm hypersonic armor-piercing discarding sabot rounds were not joke. Unfortunately, stacked up against the satanic Ursa Major…it might as well have been.

The monster ran forward despite the fusillade of gunfire and swiped with one paw. The SCAR flew out of Tate's hand and slammed so hard into a tree-trunk that it fell onto the ground bent at a 45-degree angle. Tate fell over backward on his butt, fumbling for his sidearm. His hand closed around the grip and he lifted the gun to the beast's face and fired several times.

At close range, the Majestic 6's .50 cal slugs slammed into the beast's face noticeably stunning it. It roared in pain, walking backward now on it's hindlegs and swiping at its own face with its paws.

But then it fell back down on all fours and pawed a long trench in the ground. Tate squeezed the trigger again. The gun clicked as the chamber loudly declared to the world that it was empty.

"Shit."

The beast made as to charge forward when a hundred leaves shot forward through the air. Tate dove to the floor as the leaves sailed overhead like a flurry of miniature knives.

Dozens of it impacted into the beast, but it didn't look necessarily too harmed. It roared and turned around, its attention diverted from Tate for a moment.

Tate opened his eyes and saw a girl wearing a red dress on the other side of the clearing, with little fire symbols running down the length of the hem. She couldn't have been older than a high-school student.

Her face was pale with fear and she was biting her lip. But she drew two swords from her back, and clicked them together to form a bow. The beast pawed the ground and then charged straight for the girl. The girl pulled back the string, and her fingers trembled as she steadied her aim. Moments before the beast could claw her, the girl let go and the arrow sailed straight into the beast's right eye. Something like an orange aura began spinning on the beast's skull, and then the arrow exploded, blowing the beast's head up into a cloud of black dust. Moments later, the massive body slumped to the ground and dissolved into black powder that faded away into the wind.

"What the f-" Tate stopped himself just in time. It wouldn't do to curse in front of kids, although he was pretty sure she would know at her age.

"Are you alright?" The girl asked, as she ran forward to help him up. She quickly holstered the swords on her back.

Tate looked at it in disbelief.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." He waved off her attempts to help him up.

"What are you doing wandering the forests? Don't you know that it's dangerous? Even my parents don't leave the city boundary unless they're with a troop."

"Well you see. It wasn't exactly my choice." Tate muttered sarcastically.

"What was that?"

"Never mind. What's your name, kid?"

The girl flushed a slight shade of red from being called that. "My name is Cinder Fall. I'm from Sanctum Academy in Mistral. What about you? Where are you from?"

"You can call me Tate. I'm from…" Tate paused. "…New York. You might hear that it's nicknamed the Big Apple."

"Oh." The girl frowned. "I've never heard of it. Is it a city?"

"Yeah. It's a big city, with a lot of skyscrapers and taxis…" Tate trailed off when he saw that the girl wasn't following. So obviously, this wasn't Earth. He might as well been speaking Chinese to her. "You know what, it's not important. So you're a student huh?" He put a hand to the back of his neck. "Do you…" He pointed to her swords. "Where did you learn to fight?"

"Sanctum academy. That's where everyone goes to learn, before they go to Haven."

"Oh I see." He put a hand on his chin and looked to where the monster had died. "So those creatures.."

"Grimm." She corrected him.

"Okay. Grimm….are they…" Tate realized that there was no point asking so many questions. If she said she came from an academy, she could point him out to her city and there on he could figure things out without drawing too much attention from himself. "You know, I'm just lost. I was coming here to Mistral to…teach. I'm a bit lost and if you could point me out to the nearest city, I'd greatly appreciate it."

"Sure! Oh you teach?" Her eyes brightened.

"Yeah. I teach Psychology...or at least used to teach Psychology."

Cinder looked blankly at him. "I'm not sure I'm following."

"Well. You don't have to. I studied a lot about politicians and how a lot of them achieved power through their personalities and tendencies. Interesting stuff. But then I fell into debt and ended up being forced to work as a cor…actually I don't think you care, right?"

She shook her head.

"I thought so."

"Except for the politics part." She gave him a shy smile. "Because someday, I'm going to be on the Mistral Council. That's the career path that I been thinking of taking."

"Oh." Tate chuckled. "Well, it's good to dream big dreams at a young age."

"Yeah." She shuffled her feet. "Unfortunately, my parents aren't helping my case."

"Why not?"

"They're crooks and thieves." Her face darkened. "When the neighbors see me, they…" She looked intensely at Tate and then sighed sorrowfully. "I don't know why I'm telling you this. I'm sorry for wasting your time."

"Not like I have anything better to do." Tate shrugged. An idea came up in his mind. "Say…I haven't been able to find a place to stay in Mistral. How about.." Inwardly, Tate was shaking his head, but it was a worth a try and a much better alternative than ending up homeless. "I can crash at your place if your parents are ok with it. In return, I'll give you lessons. I know about politics and I think I can help you a lot in that department. If you don't like what I say, then I'll move out and go to a different place. How does that sound?"

"I think my parents would be fine with it."

Her face lit up, but then suspicion crossed her expression.

"That's sounds awesome, but really? You don't want any actual payment?" Cinder looked genuinely surprised.

"It's on me." Tate raised his hands. He felt slightly bad for manipulating her this way, but it was the only choice he had. He didn't think he could get her on this Mistral Council, but teaching her would give him enough slack time to find out more about Mistral and move on from there.

"I don't know what to say…thanks so much! If I get on the Council because of you, I'll make sure to pay you back! " Much to Tate's surprise, she ran forward and hugged him.

Tate flinched, but then awkwardly put his hands around her. "Yeah, don't worry about it. I'll do my best."

 _Or bullshit my way as best as I can._


	2. Chapter 2: Basics

Tate watched wordlessly as he and Cinder passed through the streets of Mistral. Before they had even entered the city, they had climbed a steep hill where Tate got a good look at the city firsthand.

It was gorgeous. Pagoda structures hugged the craggy, and rocky, but lush hillsides. If Tate didn't know any better, he would have thought he landed in Ancient China. However, the feats of architectural engineering would have been impossible for the Ancient Chinese. On the top of the tallest peaks, there was a massive temple sitting on a man-made arch connecting both peaks. If Tate had to guess, that was where the government officials lived.

Unfortunately, when Cinder led Tate down the hill, they didn't climb back up. Like all urban areas, the higher it is, the wealthier the people tend to be. Cinder's neighborhood was over-crowded, and the roads were hardly paved. Tate could see the dirt intermixed with a few smatterings of stone here and there. Stray dogs were constantly roaming the streets and there was a pervading smell of both garbage and some smoke that definitely indicated a narcotic of some sort.

When they arrived at Cinder's home, it was just a small wooden house that looked more like a shed.

"It's a nice place." Tate offered.

Cinder turned her face down. "It's ok. You don't have to lie."

"I can manage. I been in worst places before. By the way, th-" Tate was interrupted when a sliding door on the house opened. A woman walked out of the shed, tying her hair into a bun. When she caught site of Tate, her hand instinctively went for a knife tucked on a red sash tied around her black robe.

"It's ok, mother. He's just a teacher." Cinder offered. She bowed her head, as her mother walked down the steps to look at Tate. Tate offered a hand, but she sniffed, and turned her head away, before putting a black hood over her head. Without so much of a word, she disappeared into the village.

Tate watched her go in disbelief. Clearly, Cinder didn't have the best parental figures. Her mother was most likely an assassin of some sort, and wasn't afraid at all to hide the fact. Her father well…judging by the heavy stench of smoke coming from within the house was probably a drug dealer.

As they entered the house, Tate dissolved into a fit of coughing. All the floors were wooden, and covered in grime and soot. They had little to no furniture, and the bedrooms only had sleeping mats on the floor. In the kitchen, there was only a sack of rice in the corner, and a couple bell peppers.

Cinder was slightly blushing, probably embarrassed for Tate to see her home in this state. She walked over to the stove and turned on the gas to begin boiling water.

"Are you hungry?" She asked, as she poured two cups of rice and a couple peppers into the pot

"It's ok. I'm not hungry now." Tate took a seat at the table. He grimaced and then pushed his chair back as he got up. "Actually…I need to step outside."

"Ok. I'll still be here."

Tate walked out of the room and back into the street. He doubled over and rested his palms on his knees. The stench in her house was unbearable. Would he really have to deal with that?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a knife leaving a scabbard. Behind Tate, there was a man wearing a mask with horns protruding from the top. His partner was wearing some kind of white mask with a smiley face and eyeholes. "Alright, kiddo. Turn out your pockets." Devil-man said cackling.

Tate quickly stood up and held his hands up. "I don't have anything of value. You're wasting your time."

"Haha, likely story pal. I'll give you ten more seconds before I slit your throat."

Tate whipped out his Majestic Six. "Okay, fine. You want me to turn out my pockets? Well here it is." He pointed it straight at Devil-man's chest.

The man froze in his tracks, but then his voice continued up again with false bravado. "You don't even know how to use that, pal."

"Oh yeah?" Tate was about to point his gun at the air and fire, but as he lifted the gun, he accidentally discharged the gun prematurely. The .50 cal compact round shot out of the barrel with incredible explosive force and slammed straight into the man's chest. Rather than punching a soda-can sized hole in the man's chest, the man merely flew back with the impact and slammed onto the ground. Tate could hear a low groan.

His partner lunged forward and tackled Tate to the ground while Tate was busy staring in shock at the fact that the mugger wasn't killed. It was both good news and bad news. The man slammed Tate's wrist to the ground, forcing him to let go of the gun. Then he punched Tate directly in the face.

Tate felt the back of his head hit the concrete hard. His vision went blurry, but his blood went hot and he realized that he was pissed as hell. Yelling with fury, Tate wrapped his hands around the man's throat and threw him off him. As the man staggered back, Tate slammed his shoe in the man's chest with all his might. The man merely grunted, although Tate found that pretty odd considering that the man wasn't that large.

Tate whipped his combat knife out of his vest. The man looked around the ground and scooped up the knife that his friend had dropped. They both began circling each other, eyeing each other warily. If there were one advantage Tate had, it would be his training.

The man stepped forward and swiped down on Tate. Tate sidestepped and the man staggered off balance. Tate jabbed quickly at the man's side as he fell. However when the knife struck the man, it bounced off rather than opening up a cut in the man's side.

The man did fall back to the side with the impact, but he wasn't bleeding anywhere. Tate stepped backward. Either he wasn't hitting hard enough, or these guys had skin like iron.

Tate looked down at the ground, and then he kicked his Majestic 6 up to his grasp and pointed it at the man. "Alright, scram!" He yelled out in a loud voice, trying to hide the fear that was creeping in his voice.

Luckily, the man didn't put two and two together and yelled out in fear. He grabbed his unconscious (but alive) partner and they quickly began running back down the street in fear.

Tate lowered the gun, and holstered it. When he turned back to Cinder's house, he saw her standing right there. She was pointing to his head. "You are bleeding."

Tate frowned, but then put a palm to his head. Blood trickled slowly down his palms and dripped onto the floor. "Shit."

* * *

Cinder handed Tate a washcloth, and Tate wiped the blood off his face as he leaned his head on one hand at the table. He grunted slightly with pain as the water caused the cut to sting.

"Why don't you have aura?" Cinder asked.

"Why don't I have what?"

"Aura. It's our souls. Everyone should have it. It provides us protection and even can be used to enhance certain abilities. Why didn't you activate it?"

Tate looked at her blankly. "I guess it's because I never gotten around to it."

"Do you want me to activate it for you?"

"Uh..." Tate scooted his chair back. "You see, I don't think I'm comfortable with people messing with my soul. I like to keep it that way."

Cinder frowned as she cocked her head to the side. "It's not dangerous. If you want to survive out there, you need protection."

"I got protection. It's right here." Tate patted the gun to his side.

"You're a glass cannon. You couldn't even handle one punch without bleeding out of your head."

Tate bowed his head and sighed. "Yeah…I guess you're right. Are you sure messing with my soul doesn't you know…mess with my chances with the afterlife? Heaven and hell and all that spiel?"

Cinder looked at him blankly.

"Never mind. I plead the fifth."

"Close your eyes." She laid a hand on his shoulder. Tate looked at her as if she was crazy, but then lowered his eyes. _People here have shields as souls, what else is new?_

Cinder's body flared a bright orange like a flame when Tate peeked. Immediately, he grabbed her wrist and shoved her away. "Ok. Yeah. No. We'll do this later." Seeing the shocked expression on Cinder's face, Tate looked down. "Sorry. I'm just…not comfortable quite yet with all this stuff. But thanks for the offer. I can take care of myself really."

"It's up to you." Cinder shrugged, composing herself. "But I recommend doing it soon. I don't want you to be dead so fast. After all, you still need to teach me." She had a sly smile on her face.

"Fine. First lesson." He raised a finger and pointed it at her face. "That sly smile? You should do that more often. If you want to be a council member, you're going to be making deals all the time. That means you have to project confidence with both your body language, facial expressions, and words."

"That's basic knowledge, everyone knows that."

"Then why don't you do it?"

Cinder looked down at the floor. "Well…"

"See? Look at what you're doing right now. The only reason why you're not implementing this basic knowledge…" Tate did air quotes in the air. "Is because no one is around to point out your faults to you right? I don't think your parents tell you this." Cinder instantly turned away, and held onto her arm with her other arm.

Tate felt a bead of sweat drop down his face. He hoped he hadn't triggered Cinder to the point of getting an arrow to the face.

"No you're right." Cinder turned back around and clenched her fists. "I won't let the past hold me down. Someday, I'm going to be on top of that mountain, mark my words." She looked outside the window towards the temple on the top of the peak.

Tate clapped his hands together. "See? That's what I'm talking about. I want to see more of that. You cultivate this attitude and you're going to go places, kid."

"Don't call me, kid." She jabbed him in the chest with a finger.

"Alright. Alright." Tate raised his hands in mock surrender. "But you got to earn your way out of that name first, right?"

There was the sound of a sword coming out of its sheathe and then a chair falling over backward. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

* * *

Tate kneeled down on his bed sheet and sat his backpack down. He rested his Majestic 6 on his palm and counted up the number of cartridges he had left. At the rate he was expending rounds, he was going to run out. Then he would have to resort to fists. And he knew how well that turned out.

Cinder was right. He would have to activate his aura if he even hoped for a slim chance of surviving on the streets.

Suddenly, the door to his room slid open. Tate immediately hid his backpack behind him. "Cinder. Do you not understand the meaning of privacy?" That's when he saw that the figure at the door wasn't Cinder. It was a male figure.

Tate immediately stood up. "Mr. Fall?"

Mr. Fall gestured for him to get up. "Get up and lets share a smoke. I want to get to know the person who is teaching my daughter."

Tate followed him out to the living room where Mr. Fall sat himself on the couch. He stirred a tray with powder with a rolled-up piece of paper. "Want one?"

"No thanks." Tate took a seat beside Mr. Fall. Mr. Fall took a long drag from the roll and then set it down on the table. Smoke continued to waft off the roll.

"You know. I am thankful that my daughter has a good role model to look up to."

"Oh really?" Tate was taken aback. He put a hand on the back of his neck. "Well, lets address the elephant in the room here. You could easily be that role model for her."

"I can't." There was sorrow in his voice.

For a moment there was silence between the two men. "Is it the…the drugs?" Tate asked.

"No. It's not that. I'm just not home all the time."

"It's work huh?"

"Cinder is lucky that she even got to go to Sanctum Academy. I had to scrounge off what little money I made with my deals to allow her that privilege. Unfortunately, that means I cannot be home all the time as I have to meet with clients."

"What about her mother? Does she have…work also?" Tate was trying to keep it delicate, although he knew well that Cinder's mom's work wasn't exactly traditional.

looked at Tate and chuckled. "Oh come on. You and I both know what she actually does. You're a smart man. You may not approve of her work, but it's the only thing that lets us keep a roof over our heads and allow Cinder to go to school."

"I understand what you mean. I was in debt myself, but I guess I was lucky that I didn't have a wife and kids to take care of. Actually, I think they're lucky that they weren't with me."

"I see. What was your job?"

"I was a soldier. But not the soldier that fights for ideals and its people. I was a soldier for hire. It was the only other career if you didn't want to be sent to the labor camps."

"You see. You and I are not very different. But unlike Cinder, you and I have already lived out our lives. There's no turning back. The only thing we can do is hope that Cinder doesn't suffer the same fate as us."

Tate nodded. "That's right." He sighed. "I guess I'm sorry for judging."

"It's no problem. It is what it is, and I admire a man willing to tell the truth." He gestured to the cut on Tate's head. "Where did you get that from? Get into a big fight?"

Tate rubbed the cut reflexively. "It was nothing. I just got into a fight with a couple of muggers."

"Cinder thought it was very strange that you didn't have aura activated. How come you weren't taught that in school?"

"You know, I'm just not ready to take that step just yet. " Tate shrugged.

"Then how do you think you can live another year in one of the most dangerous parts of Mistral rife with crime?"

Tate handed his Majestic Six. "I got this."

Fall took the gun from his grip and turned it over as he inspected the parts. "This is a very fine piece of craftsmanship." He popped out the cylinder and took out one of the cartridges. "This is a big round. Do you have a lot?"

"I been running out." Tate admitted.

"Well." Fall popped the cylinder back in but pocketed one of the bullets. "I wouldn't like to see you dead on the streets before you finish teaching my daughter what you know. I'll visit a friend of mine and see what I can do. But really, I recommend you work on your aura before you think about weapons."

"Thanks. I appreciate it. And yeah, I want to have a bit more information before I go into this thing."

"Whenever you're ready, you should ask my daughter. My wife and I do not have the level of raw talent that she has." He handed the gun back to Tate and Tate tucked it back in its holster. "Anyway, it's late and you should get to bed."

"Alright. It was nice talking to you." Tate held out a hand and shook it. As Tate walked back to this room and lay down on the mat, he began wondering if he should stick to his Earthly roots or give himself fully to his world. After all , if this was what his life was going to be, there would be going back.


	3. Chapter 3: Your Move

Tate was sitting at the table out by Cinder's front porch, wiping each individual chess piece with a cloth. Cinder was outside practicing a speech using her scroll.

She looked up to the sky as she spoke. Cinder wasn't bothering to use hand motions, but merely stood up straight and hardened her tone."…The people of Mistral in these parts are neglected and left in the dark. When they need help from our government, who do you think they can trust?"

"Cinder!" Tate waved her over to the table. "That was good. It was much better than it was a few days ago." He chuckled.

Cinder smiled back and nodded her head. "Thank you."

"But come. I want to show you something."

Cinder put her scroll in her pocket and walked on over curiously. Tate picked up a chessboard and set it on the table, blowing off the dust in the process.

"Do you know how to play this? I found this in the living room." As he spoke, he began setting up each piece in their exact position on the board.

Cinder shook her head and frowned. She picked up a pawn from the board and turned it over to look at it from all sides.

"My parents never taught me. How do you play?"

"It's really simple." Tate pointed out the piece she was holding. "That's a pawn." He then spread his hand down the rows of squares. "These are Rooks, Bishops, Knights, and then you have your King and Queen. Basically, each one of them has their own moves. For example, the pawn can move forward and backward, and the Bishop can move diagonally. The caveat is…" Tate picked up the King piece and held it out to her. "You want to protect your King."

"The King can't protect itself?" Cinder took the piece from Tate's hand and gave the piece a look of disdain.

"Well no, it can't. That's not the point, the point is-"

"That's foolish. A leader should be able to protect themselves instead of merely relying on their soldiers. They should be able to fight." She dropped the piece on the table.

"Ah. Well, in that case, you might be more interested in the Queen. It's a piece that can capture other pieces and can do most of the other moves the pieces can do."

Cinder picked up the Queen piece next. "Seems to me like this piece is the most valuable."

"It is." Tate leaned forward and pushed the board forward so that Cinder could get a better look. "I brought this out to you not because I want you to play it, but because I think it serves as a good analogy. That Queen piece you are holding is a valuable piece, but obviously it cannot fight a war or get anything accomplished without a team."

He swept his hand over the board again. "That's where the rest of the pieces come in. They form a team to fight for the King and Queen. For the Queen and King, they value two things in their team." He held up two fingers. "First, they value loyalty. If your team members aren't on your side on the first place, then that can compromise your mission. Secondly, if your team isn't being obedient, then you might as well be running anarchy instead of an army. In the case of the pawn, well…sometimes they need to be sacrificed to achieve a larger goal, namely winning the game."

"Loyalty and obedience." Cinder repeated.

"That's right. You'll notice here that all pieces, no matter who they are, can still capture pieces. So if you want to be building allies, you have to make sure your allies can enforce their talk. You know what I mean? A government without say, law enforcement and soldiers might as well be a joke, because it can't enforce its laws."

Cinder nodded. "I see." She set down the Queen piece and stared at the sky in contemplation. "So you would say that a government shows its power through force?"

"Mmm…not necessarily. A government also enforces its will through making deals and negotiations. A lot of times, you want to see if two members of a party share a mutual goal. Once you make a deal where both goals can be accomplished, then the deal has a greater chance of passing."

"Alright, this makes sense. But how does this apply to the Mistral Council?"

"I think its something worth considering when you get into politics. You're going to have to learn to make deals with other countries if you are joining the Mistral Council. Sometimes other countries like..uh…uh." Tate froze, as he realized that he didn't know any other regions other than Mistral.

"Atlas?"

"Yeah, Atlas." Tate cleared his throat and didn't look into Cinder's eyes. "I'm sure they have a military yes, like most other countries?"

"They have the largest. They also produce most of the Dust from their factories."

"Dust? I uh…" Tate felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his head.

"You don't know about Dust?" Cinder narrowed her eyes. "What kind of teacher-"

"Hey. Hey. Lets just say I was a very book smart student, except only in certain subjects."

Cinder leaned back and shrugged. "Well, it is supposed to be common knowledge. I have some books from school that you can read on your own time. What school-"

Tate snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Thanks, but lets get back on topic. As I was saying, since Atlas has the largest military, I think that gives them a certain advantage over the other countries. They have a bigger means of intimidation."

Cinder nodded. "That's true. I would hate to be an envoy to Atlas." She shook her head. "But they have to have some kind of weakness., right?" She studied the ranks of pieces on the other side almost as if she was imagining the scenario.

"Right. You're learning fast." Tate was surprised at what a quick learned she was. He leaned back and watched the sun slowly begin sinking below the horizon. "It's getting late, so you should head inside. Do you have any questions for me?"

"No. I think it was crystal clear." Cinder didn't take her eyes off the board. In fact, she seemed utterly fascinated with it. She leaned her head on one arm, while she moved some of the pieces with other hand. "I'll be moving this to be my room, if that's alright."

"Go on, ahead. It's yours anyway."

* * *

Tate went behind Cinder's house and looked sheepishly about him, before sitting down and resting his back on the house. But then he slipped a roll into his mouth and lit the end of it. He inhaled, before resting the roll between his fingers as he blew out a stream of smoke into the night.

Despite the smell, whatever it was helped him relax. Living in a strange world was stressful enough, and the worry about being found out to be an impostor. As much as he hated reading, he took Cinder's advice and took one of her books. It was titled _Kingdoms of Remnant_ , which Tate picked out because he guessed that reading about the whole history would probably catch up him with Dust, Grimm, Aura, and all that spiel. Luckily, Remnant wasn't too different from Earth. At least everyone spoke English, and most of the trends like crime and government were similar enough.

Tate flipped a page in the book, and took another inhale. That's when he noticed a shadow cast over the book.

He whipped around quickly, cigarette still in his mouth before he caught sight of a woman walking up behind him. Much to his surprise, it was not Ms. Fall.

The woman raised her hands, which had black gloves on. "Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you." She had blue eyes, blue hair, and a blue uniform with white stripes down the side.

She looked behind her warily, before turning back to Tate. "I noticed that you are a new arrival recently. Are you Cinder's teacher?"

"You first. What's your name?" Tate asked suspiciously.

The woman smiled, looking at Tate as if he was stupid. "I don't do names. But perhaps if you know who I am, maybe you will be more willing to cooperate?"

"Well, then." Tate paused, and let the silence between them grow longer. He resisted the urge to reach for this gun. Such an action would only paint him as being afraid of her. He had to admit…he was. "What do you do then?"

"Oh nothing." The woman said casually, letting out a low whistle under her breath. She turned her eyes to the sky as she put her hands behind her back. "Maybe I like to investigate criminal conspiracy. Maybe you play a part in it, I don't know."

Tate felt his blood run cold. "I don't know what you're talking about. I just teach."

"Don't play dumb with me." The woman laughed lightly. She pointed to the cigarette Tate was holding. "For someone pleading ignorance, you sure are quite knee deep in the conspiracy itself."

Tate looked at the cigarette before tossing it quickly into the darkness. He stood up slowly and faced the woman, looking her face to face. "Listen. You come up here on private property and make threats to my student and me. I don't know who you think you are, but if you think you can coerce me into doing any-"

"Relax." She held out an arm and pushed Tate away from her as she rolled her eyes. "I'm not after you in particular. But you and I know that the people who you work for are less than…savory. Mr. Fall is a dealer in illegal substances that you yourself just took, but I'm willing to let that slide for you. Ms. Fall on the other hand is a well-known assassin that engaged in the murder of many civilians both non-criminal and criminal. If I were you, I would have concerns about their child becoming a successor."

"She doesn't want to become like that."

"What do you know about what she wants?"

Tate was about to mention that Cinder wanted to become a council member, but decided not to let the woman know. In fact, Tate had a suspicion that the woman was a detective.

He'll play her little game.

"Lets say you're right. What do you want?"

"That's what I was looking for." She took out a notepad and began scribbling on it. "Mr. Fall and Ms. Fall are good at what they do, and I want to bring them to justice. However, none of us have been able to catch them in the act. That's where you change things. You're in their "inner circle" now, so you know what they do. It's simple, really. Catch them in the act, and we can bring them to court."

"What makes you think they trust me?"

"They probably don't. But if you continue showing them sincerity in what you do for their daughter, then they will soon learn to trust you. Maybe they might let slip something specific we can nail them down on. Better yet, maybe they might include you in their little operation."

"That's nonsense. You and I know both know that's far-fetched."

"Well, maybe not you, but when their daughter gets old enough, she will be included. Trust me. Like all criminal parents, their offspring will follow their footsteps. In fact, I think it will be easier to expand the probe to their daughter so we can catch them all in one fell swoop."

Tate forced his head down in a fake nod. "Okay. I understand." Inside, he was squirming. Although, originally he had used Cinder as a way to find out more about the world and get housing on top of that, he had gotten pretty attached to her over the course of the week. He hadn't gotten attached to her in _that way_ , but definitely wanted to see her succeed in her dreams against all odds.

The woman walked forward and put a hand on Tate's shoulder. "Remember. You're just a teacher. You don't have to get involved. You'll be doing good work by allowing us to bring a criminal family to justice. Best of all, you will be compensated _generously_."

 _But Cinder hasn't done anything wrong._

Tate had to speak up. "I don't think its fair to sweep Cinder up in all this. What her parents chose to do is not her fault."

"You think she'll really be innocent to all this, a couple months later when she becomes an adult? It's better to get her now before she becomes a full-fledged criminal. We need people like her off the streets and in cells."

Tate's face flushed red with anger. Maybe Cinder's parents deserved jail. But , Cinder didn't.

Instead he stuck out a hand, and shook the woman's hand. "Alright. I'm your man."

"That's the spirit." The woman smiled, and tore a sheet off her pad and handed it to him. Included with the sheet was a scroll and a number. "You can contact me here using this. It doesn't have a caller ID or anything, so you'll be untraceable just in case they catch wind of what you're doing."

"Thanks." Tate took the scroll from her, and pocketed it.

"By the way, what was your name?"

Tate paused.

"I'm Benedict Arnold." It was all he could do to keep a straight face.

"Well, Arnold. Good luck and good hunting." She gave him a thumbs up, before walking off into the darkness of the street.

Tate watched her go. His fists clenched. If there was one question that woman should have asked herself, she should have asked herself: teacher or secret private military contractor?

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **It's been three chapters so far and things have been slow as Tate mentors Cinder. In the following two chapters, things are going to start picking up. I think you can guess what the next chapter is already about. I will be doing time skips so that the story doesn't drag, but soon Cinder's transformation will be complete soon. (Haven Academy acceptances are around the corner *wink wink*).**


	4. Chapter 4: Pivot

Moonlight streamed down from the night-sky, and illuminated the porch like streams of white ribbons. Tate was sitting down at the porch looking up to the sky. His right hand fingers twitched as if they were instinctively holding a cigarette, but Tate quickly grabbed that hand with his left hand.

Although the substance wasn't too addictive, Tate had decided to quit before it became a habit. He had to focus on Cinder and what he was about to do next, and he needed every part of his brain to be active and focused.

Cinder was sitting on the steps with the chessboard laid out on the floor under the roof, obscured from the moonlight. There were no pieces on the board, but Cinder kept staring at the board as if she were making imaginary moves. Tate sighed, and slid closer to her.

"Hey."

"Hey." She murmured, without looking up at him.

Tate snapped his fingers. "Alright, alright." He gently slid the board aside. "Real talk, Cinder."

Cinder took her eyes off the board and slid next to him. As her face revealed itself in the moonlight, Tate realized for the first time just how much she had changed since he first met her. Her eyes were a lot more sharp and alert, instead of the usual downcast, shy way. Her shoulders were more squared up, her back was straight, and she held an air of confidence around her. She was a far cry to the innocent poor, village girl she once was.

She was going to conquer the world.

Tate paused, before turning to her.

"Cinder. How badly do you want to become a Mistral Council Member?"

Cinder cocked her head to the side curiously, but then quickly replied, "That's a strange question to ask."

"It's important." Tate said vaguely.

"Important for what?" Cinder leaned closer to Tate.

"Who is the one asking questions here? Me or you?" Tate teased.

Cinder leaned backward and looked as if she was lost in thought. Then, she looked at Tate with a grim expression. "I can't imagine myself not being one."

"Why not?"

Cinder stood up and gestured to the gray dust all around her and the dilapidated wooden shed. "Because what else is in store for me? This? There's no future here, Tate. The people who stay here only have two options. That is, go into crime or die of starvation. I'm getting out of here as soon as I can."

"You can always become a huntress. That path doesn't mean you'll have to come back here."

Cinder shook her head. "Yes. I used to want to be a huntress. But now I can see that they have no real power other than through their blades. When they fight for a cause, they ultimately bow down to old men with crowns."

"So do you fear being powerless?"

"I do not fear being powerless. I resent being powerless and disrespected."

"What do you want to change, Cinder?" Tate asked. "Do you want to lift the people around you out of poverty? Make a better living for the people of Mistral?"

Cinder turned around and looked down at him with a slight smile on her face. She didn't answer him as she crossed her arms and looked back towards the shattered moon. "Perhaps. What I want is almost unexplainable. I presume that is what Council Members will do, helping people. On the other hand, I wouldn't necessarily say that is a primary motive."

"So. Do you mean you want power, for the sake of having power?"

There was silence for a full minute. Than, Cinder looked down at Tate and her smile faded. Instead, her face showed hell-bent determination that made even Tate shiver.

"Yes."

"Okay." Tate grunted, as he stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. Although Cinder's answer was unexpected, it was along the lines of what he was looking for. History textbooks warned about the plague of tyrants and dictators on the Earth, and Tate had a healthy respect in regards to straying away towards that path.

On the other hand, Tate could sympathize. Once when CELL's naval forces had unleashed a devastating naval bombardment upon London, from onboard the HMS Robin Hood, Tate had felt both a feeling of shock…but also reverent awe. Once Tate had seen Cinder as a mere village girl, but now Tate could see the utter raw talent and potential behind her. It was a flame that could not be extinguished.

"Now this is what I want you to do. I'm ready. I want you to activate my aura for me."

Cinder was taken aback, although she stepped forward and laid a hand over his shoulder. "Wait, why now?"

"I'll explain to you later. It'll be an important lesson from me."

"Alright. But before, I do, I want to ask you, Tate. What do you want?"

Tate had to admit. He didn't want to live like this anymore than Cinder did. He found himself identifying a lot with Cinder's position. He never enjoyed his time being a mere debt slave to CELL. Being a psychologist wasn't any better with the amount of scorn his work got.

"You know. Honestly, I just want to move up in the world myself, Cinder."

Tate closed his eyes, and Cinder's flaming aura manifested itself again.

 _Everyone is a pawn to something: an organization, a person, or a country. But never forget that when a pawn reaches the other side of the board, it can become any piece it wants._

Tate opened his eyes, and was shocked to see blood-red energy surrounding him. He looked at his hands and arms and turned them over, surprised to see that the light was not disappearing. However, he felt a sense of comfort and protection.

But even more importantly, he felt strength. Cinder had stepped back and was panting hard, looking incredibly drained.

As Tate walked over, the color disappeared until his skin was back to its normal color. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It takes a lot of energy to activate another's aura, as I have to use my own aura to do so. But I'm glad you made this choice."

* * *

Since meeting the detective, for the past couple weeks Tate had used the scroll to send the detective messages. Mainly, Tate had been constructing a narrative to lead the detective on. He had been lying about how Mr. Fall had a strange habit at night, where he would go to a certain place in the house and pull up the floorboards. Tate had described the habit in such intricate detail and over a long enough time period that he felt that the investigation could be concluded.

 _I believe that the habit had enough grounds for an investigation. When I went to the floorboards myself, I found what looked to be sensitive financial evidence that can be used in court and for future indictments._

 _Meet me in your usual place. I. Have. The. Files. Meet ASAP._

The usual place was an alleyway deep in the urban area far away from both the prying eyes of curious villagers and criminals. Although Tate had initially been reluctant to check up with the detective in person regularly, the detective insisted to make sure that Tate was alive and that the scroll hadn't been merely hijacked by someone else.

Nevertheless, the meets had given Tate lots of information to act on. For one, the detective revealed that she was working alone after Tate lied and said he wasn't feeling safe and wanted protection. She laughed at him. Mistral's big money/big time law enforcement didn't have enough resources to go after so-called "petty criminals" as there were too many to go after. Independent detectives, however, had the opportunity to go around to parts of Mistral and attempt to bring criminals to justice. Some succeeded and others failed.

Unfortunately, for this detective, she would just be another tick in the failed list.

Now, Tate was standing on the street nervously tapping his foot on the ground as he held a folder in both hands. The street was wet and he could hear water droplets dripping onto puddles as rain lightly drizzled from above. An abandoned crop field and a line of abandoned homes walled the block in. The windows were either boarded up, or covered with a garbage bag. Not only that, but the entire block had no lights. Lawns were overgrown, and they covered the picket signs that once said "For Sale."

It was the perfect place if you didn't want anyone listening to you.

Tate could hear the crop field rustling, and then a figure pushing their way through the stalks and walking up to the street.

"You have the files, Arnold?" The detective's voice was hushed.

"I have it." Tate unfolded the folder from under his arm, and handed it over. By now, the drizzle had turned into a shower. Torrents of rain poured down from above, drenching the two of them. Water dripped from Tate's cap rim, and onto the floor.

The detective pulled her cloak tighter over her head, as she took the folder and tried to shield it from the rain. "There's nothing inside." She growled. That's when she looked up and saw a barrel pointing at her face. There was a flash.

The magnum slug slammed right into her face and knocked her flat on her back on the street. The detective gasped for breath, as the impact had knocked the breath out of her body. She spit out water, as she rolled over onto her side and shakily got to her feet.

"What are you doing?" She hissed.

"I'm sorry. I can't have you talking about Cinder to anyone else. This investigation ends now."

"Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what you're doing here, Arnold?"

"I'm Tate. And I know exactly what I'm doing."

"You're just a teacher, Tate." She spit out the name. "Stay out of this and let me take care of this. I get you're scared of her family, but we can get through this, I promise. Have they suspected you? Is that why you're lashing out?"

"No. You been using Cinder to jumpstart your career, I get it. Unfortunately, I can't let you do that."

"Fine." The detective growled, as she drew a sword from her belt. "Then let you be my first case to close." She braced herself and was about to leap forward when Tate just turned on his heels and fled.

"What's wrong? Scared?" She yelled in surprise, as she watched Tate flee into one of the homes. The detective vaulted over the white-picket fence and ran up to the steps of the house.

Quietly, she took the grip in both hands and began walking slowly through the abandoned home. Her boots made the floorboards beneath her creak.

"Come out, Tate. I'll make this quick, I swear. I'm not the one to practice police brutality." In the darkness, she smacked her head on something hanging from the ceiling. She grunted as a hand instinctively went to her head. When she looked in front of her, she saw what looked to be cylindrical objects suspended in a wire net from the ground.

Behind her in the corner of the room a healthy distance away, Tate braced his hand on his left arm as he aimed the Majestic at the net. He squeezed the trigger, and the bullet shot out of the barrel. When it reached the net and slammed into the cylindrical objects, the 40 mm grenades detonated and exploded violently. The explosion tore out the entire front section of the house, shooting out a deadly wave of splinters and the detective onto the lawn.

Some kind of light shimmered around the detective, as she slammed into the lawn. Tate stepped out of the house in surprise. She wasn't dead. She was merely stunned. Tate had hoped that the package of 40 mm grenades that originated from his SCAR attachment would take her out in one clean blow. Clearly, that hadn't worked.

The detective stumbled to her feet and then swung her sword at Tate. Tate had to step back as the detective swung wildly. A blow landed on Tate's arm, but much to his surprise, the blade didn't chop his arm off. It still hurt, but the impact made him go flying back and he dropped the gun. Tate fell over onto his back, but he quickly rolled to the side as a blade buried itself from where he once was seconds later. Her speed was astonishing.

Looking up, he saw the detective's face was bleeding from multiple splinter wounds. Her eyes were covered in blood and water. Her aura must have taken a beating.

She slashed at Tate several times, her blade neatly cutting the stalks of grass beside him but not hitting. Tate took advantage of her apparent blindness, and scrambled to his feet. He ran forward and then dove to the floor to grab his gun. Rolling over onto his back, he saw that she was airborne and her blade was held high over her head. Tate fired, and the bullet punched a hole through her heart.

She gasped, but then fell forward onto Tate heavily. Her blade fell down tip first onto the grass millimeters from Tate's ear. When Tate opened his eyes, he saw her eyes were rolled up to her head and she was slightly slack-jawed.

"Disgusting." Tate shoved her body off him, and then brushed himself off. Sitting up, he panted with the adrenaline that was still flowing through his veins. He heard a low growl and saw a pair of red eyes showing from the crop-field.

"Shit." He was just about to get up and run, when the red-eyes slowly withdrew back into the cornfield. "Damn. Must be seeing things." Tate rubbed his eyes as he now surveyed the body of the detective.

Her death was a necessary sacrifice. Tate grabbed a shovel that he had leaned against the fence and began digging.

* * *

Tate was washing his face with a white rag. When he wrung out the liquid into the sink, blood intermixed with water as it drained down the sink. He groaned slightly, as he massaged the arm that the detective hit. It was sore, but his aura was doing its work to heal the part.

When he looked up, he saw Cinder behind him. He had forgotten to lock the door.

"What happened to you?" She said, taking in the blood and the fact that Tate was shaking with both fear and post-adrenaline.

Tate shut off the sink and turned around. "I did you a huge favor."

"What? Did you-" She looked at the blood, and Tate knew what she was thinking. As ambitious as Cinder was, maybe she wasn't ready for this kind of work yet.

"Listen, Cinder." Tate waved a hand. "I'm a teacher, but your father may have told you this also. I'm a soldier of fortune. This is what we do."

"B-"

"You want to go to jail, Cinder, for something you didn't do? You tell me all the time that this place is like prison, but you haven't seen the real thing, have you?"

Cinder wrung her hands a bit. "How many people were after me?"

"Zero, at least after tonight. I didn't like doing it, but I put all my chips on you. You'll understand when you're older or when you have more real-world experience."

"I do understand!" Cinder suddenly said with sudden ferocity. Her fists were clenched and there was a little flame in her pupils. Tate stepped back, almost afraid that she going to take a swing at him.

"Good then. I see we have no disagreement then." He pushed past her despite being afraid to touch her. Cinder grabbed his arm with an iron grip, and stopped him from walking any further. Then, her grip softened.

"You taught me a lot and I'm thankful. This lesson may just be…a harder one to grasp."

Tate licked his dry lips. "Like I said, you don't have to understand now. But you will soon. Hopefully." He regretted saying those words, but saying those words helped to cover up the guilt he was feeling.

Cinder let go of his arm, and watched Tate go. Tate looked at his hands as he walked into the room.

 _It's been while since I killed…like for CELL. Like those times, though, the feeling will just go away with enough trigger pulls._


	5. Chapter 5: The Real Queen

Tate rapped on the door to Haven Academy's office gently. He pressed his ear to the door, and heard the shuffling of papers and the scrape of a chair leg on the floor.

When he heard footsteps, he quickly backed away and straightened his shirt so that it didn't look too so rumpled.

The door slid open, revealing a man wearing a white collared shirt and black pants. "Can I help you?" He asked. The man straightened his glasses as he gave Tate a suspicious glance. Considering Tate's age, Tate would have been suspicious himself if he were a school secretary.

"Hey, sorry, I know this may sound weird. But I-" Tate threw his hands in the air. "Bah. You know what? I want to make an inquiry to a student's application. I was hoping to talk to the headmaster."

"The headmaster left early. Step inside and have a seat." The man walked over behind his desk and pulled out a stack of papers from underneath his desk. He sighed as he slowly undid a binder clip from the stack. Tate nervously walked over and took the seat opposite.

"Are you a parent or a guardian?"

"Uh…I'm not. However, I am her…tutor, or mentor so to speak."

The man let go of the stack of papers and rested his chin on one hand. "I'm afraid I cannot help you then. Also, I doubt applications were processed that quickly anyway."

Tate put his hands together. "Hey, man. Help me out. I-" He put his face to his folded hands, before looking up. "I haven't seen her in a few days and I… I'm sure she's fine, but I just…I just want to see if this had anything to do with it for sure."

For a moment, the man stared at Tate and then the door to his office. He sighed. "Alright. But I will let this slide just this one time. Don't expect to come here again and look through everyone's applications. It's liability issues you know and I can lose my job."

"Thank you so much. Her last name is Fall and her first name is Cinder."

"Okay." He thumbed through the pile, licking his finger to make the going easier. After a while, he pulled out a sheet of paper with a yellow sheet attached to it. He frowned and adjusted his glasses. "Well, I'm afraid this is an interesting situation."

"What do you mean?"

The man tore the yellow sheet off and showed it to Tate. "Cinder's family is under investigation right now from a private detective. This notification of the probe was submitted to Haven Academy in particular to notify admissions officers to defer any application from her immediately until the probe was finished."

"What?" Tate faked surprise in his voice. "How recently was this notification submitted?"

"It was submitted long ago, probably a few months ago."

Apparently, the detective had submitted a notification long before Tate arrived in Remnant. The detective must have been making no progress until Tate showed up as a possible means to solve the case. Even with the detective's disappearance, the probe was still "open" so to speak as the detective didn't cancel it herself…not that she could cancel it anymore.

"So are you saying Cinder knew immediately of her deferment?"

"Yes. We rather she know now then later when all the other student's results came out."

"Damn." Tate buried his head in his hands as he rested his elbows on the desk.

"You know…I hate to be…well I hate to say this, but…" The man paused, as he bit one finger. He looked nervous and wasn't looking Tate in the eye.

"Hate to say what?"

"Well, now that you know the circumstances in which Ms. Fall was deferred, perhaps you might understand what I have to say next."

"Go on."

"I'm sure she's a young, talented girl. I mean-how long have you taught her?"

"Not that long." Tate shrugged. "I taught her some things in the first couple weeks. Just this last week, I helped her fill out this application."

"Ah. Well not that long you see? Perhaps it might be better for you to let go of this…err…problem while it's early."

"I-" Tate almost choked on his own breath. "I don't understand."

"Now that you know the circumstances in which Ms. Fall was deferred, perhaps you might understand what I'm about to say next."

"Go on." Tate felt this sick feeling in his stomach. He kind of knew what the secretary was going to say next.

"Her family according to this notification is criminal in nature. I wouldn't be surprised if their daughter also joined or inherited various criminal enterprises. If she went missing now, it might be better to let her disappear off to whatever places criminals go. We know how much better off Haven Academy will be without her."

Tate clenched his fists under the desk. "During my tenure with her, I didn't see her engage in anything criminal."

"It's the potential, not what she did. You know, I think you got lucky. Leave now and leave her to her own devices. Haven Academy has some vacant spots open and we will be glad to take an educated men like yourself."

Tate stood up abruptly, and almost knocked over a chair much to the man's surprise. "Sorry." Tate apologized and shook his head. "I just need more time to process this."

"Well, I hope you don't do anything you might regret. Good day to you sir." The man waved him off, as Tate slammed the door shut.

Once outside the office, Tate slumped down and leaned against the walls of the office. He honestly hadn't expected to see this coming. He had thought that the silencing of the detective would launch Cinder right into Haven Academy considering her raw talent as demonstrated by both his interactions with her and the Sanctum Academy progress reports.

 _New lesson. Pulling the weeds doesn't make your problems go away. You have to rip out the roots by the source of the rot._

* * *

A bottle struck the side of a stonewall and shattered into hundreds of pieces. "Whatever." Tate took another swig from a second bottle, before loudly slamming the bottle on floor. The shattered moon cast its weak rays over the shards of glass, reflecting back into a pattern on the house opposite. For the last couple hours, the pile had only just gotten bigger until the pattern was almost engulfing a quarter of the houses's wall.

Tate wiped his mouth with an arm, and the mere motion of moving his head made him feel dizzy and slightly nauseated. Not that it mattered to him. After all, this was just another mistake to add onto the long list of mistakes he made.

"Foolish." He muttered to himself. It was stupid of him to commit to this girl that was barely an adult and expect her to go places. "Should have looked for a mundane job." The pang of Cinder's disappearance hurt him more than it should have.

Tate had originally wanted to use Cinder as a means to get a leg up in the world. Now, Cinder was using him.

"What I deserve. Should've never gotten so attached." He slurred.

A growl sounded out behind him, and all the hairs on his arms stood up. "Fuck." He fumbled for his gun as he turned to look behind the house. A red-eyed creature was slowly emerging from the woods, its grizzly-like bear hump protruding from its back for Tate to see and fear.

To Tate's surprise, he saw five guns when he reached for his weapon. However, when he reached for one, his hand merely scraped against the wooden floor.

He looked up and saw the creature was merely a pounce distance away. Tate grabbed the Majestic and lifted it drunkenly. When he squeezed the trigger, he heard a click. Cursing under his breath, he fumbled for bullets in his pouches as he slid out the revolver chamber. The bullets slipped between his fingers and clattered onto the floor noisily.

Another growl sounded, and Tate looked up and saw the creature was now face to face with him. "Shit."

With a roar, the creature bowled Tate right over and Tate slammed the back of his head on the wooden floor. Everything went black.

* * *

 _Tate could hear the sound of gunfire. Hairs rose up on the back of his neck, as the landscape suddenly morphed into a grassland with blades taller than his head._

 _"Fan out!" Someone screamed. There was the rattling of a controlled burst from a machine gun. Then a longer, less controlled burst._

 _"Out of the grass move!"_

 _"Shit! Shit! Shit!"_

 _A low metallic howl came from the grass, and Tate immediately shouldered his SCAR. "Holy shit." He muttered. He turned to his CELLL squad leader who was standing beside him. The officer turned to him. "Stand down, Operative. It's nothing."_

 _"You hear that?" Someone said distantly from the grass. "It's there! It's right there! Ceph Stalkers!" Gunfire roared all about Tate, and he could hear the sounds of slashing and men screaming in pain. "Aah! Shoot it! Shoot it!"_

 _Two blades tore into the officer's chest, and he was dragged screaming into the grass by a Ceph Stalker draped from head to toe in alien metallic armor and purple tentacles waving out its back. "Officer!" Tate yelled at the top of his lungs. He ran after his friend to grab him, when something heavy landed in front of him. The shockwave knocked him over onto his back. He looked up to see two red slits glaring down at him. Panting hard, Tate looked at his chest and saw that his stomach had been laid open._

 _With shaking hands, he held one of his intestines, wondering if it was real. A shadow cast over him, and he saw a huge taloned_ _foot come stomping down on his face._

"SHIT!" Tate screamed out loud, waking up in a cold sweat. His head was pounding like a hammer on a nail, constantly driving it deeper and deeper into his skull.

He heard an animal grunt in response.

Tate blinked as he opened his eyes slightly. He couldn't see much of anything. The landscape was just a jet-black color according to him, the moonlight revealed little else but long-shaft like crystals shooting out of parts of the landscape like it was some sick version of Dante's Inferno. Sighing, he closed his eyes again and let himself be taken back into the darkness.

* * *

"For someone of such apparent intellect, you don't look like it." Tate opened one eye, and saw a mustached-man staring back at him and speaking in a vaguely, British accent.

"What a joke." Tate blurted out. "Damn Limeys." He muttered.

"Humph." There was a chuckle, and this time Tate fully opened both of his eyes. He was lying on a cold, stone floor in the middle of what looked to be a huge indoor courtyard. The courtyard was completely dark, save for what little light emitted from a row of candles on the opposite side of the room. Blood-red shapes were painted all alongside the wall and there was one tall archway leading out of the room.

The apparently British man snapped his fingers in front of Tate's face. "Had a rough time last night huh? I hear the ride was unpleasant." The man teased. The man had black hair with gray sideburns. His eyes were green, and he was wearing a metallic-gray coat with a maroon vest with yellow buttons, a black tie, and a yellow button up shirt.

"What ride?" Tate asked. Then he remembered last night. He was attacked by an Ursa Major but for some reason, wasn't mauled to death. Instead he had felt like he was being dragged somewhere but after that, he was foggy on details. Of course none of that mattered now. What REALLY mattered was where the hell he ended up now in the first place and if his life was in immediate danger.

Luckily, his second question was answered.

"Her Grace felt that you were of interest, along with the other girl. What she sees in you or her, I have yet to ascertain."

"Cinder, you mean Cinder?" Tate blurted out. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the throbbing pain in his head and his incredibly parched mouth.

"Well, yes. But are you so eager to see her that you don't wish to introduce yourself to me first?"

 _Yeah, I met you already. You're an asshole._

"I'm Arthur Watts." He held out a hand as he grinned at Tate in a condescending way.

Tate hesitated, but then shook his hand. "I'm Richard Tate, but you can just call me Tate."

"Ah. Well I see it was a pleasure to meet you Tate, although I have to say that my first impression of you was rather…unimpressive."

"I was drunk." Tate resisted the urge to cuss Watts out. As much as he hated the slimy, arrogant bastard, he knew the way to Cinder. Although Watt's mentioning of "Her Grace" made Tate incredibly uneasy.

"I could see that. By the way, what does limey mean?"

Tate locked eyes with Watts. "Don't worry about it, it's not important." He flashed Watts a smile. He put a hand on Watt's shoulder. This time it was Watt's turn to lose his smile. Watts moved his shoulder away from Tate's hand.

"Alright then." Watts straightened out his jacket as he composed himself. "Then, if you're all ready to go, perhaps we should go see her. Oh and by the way, I recommend you refer to her with more respectful titles than the one you gave me. I hear she does not tolerate indiscipline as much as I do."


	6. Chapter 6: Sign a Contract

When Tate stepped into the room, the first thing he felt was just how clammy and frigid the air was. He felt a primeval instinct to immediately back out of the room. Still, curiosity drove him forward.

To him, the room looked like that of a cathedral with a tall ceiling, roman columns, and huge red stain glass windows lining the sides. Upon closer look, he realized he was wrong.

The windows weren't stained red. The OUTSIDE environment was red. Tate suppressed a gulp, as his eyes took in the other scenes. The table in the middle of the room was the same glowing purple color as the candle-stands lining the sides of the room. Overall, the room vaguely reminded Tate of a demonic dining hall. He almost wanted to laugh at just how blatantly evil the room looked. It was the textbook definition of an evil lair.

Cinder was sitting at the opposite end of the table looking down at the table's surface. She looked up and saw Tate and her eyes widened briefly. Tate set his mouth in a tight line as he raised a hand to greet her. Opposite Cinder was a burly man with brown hair and arms that looked like tree-trunks. He nodded slowly to Tate.

Watts sat down at the nearest seat on the table, and Tate followed suit. As he sat down, he noticed that there was one more person sitting at the middle who gave Tate a mischievous grin. Tate immediately found himself disliking the man. He had a crazed, maniacal look in his eyes and anyone who showed their chest in public was clearly an asshole.

Tate looked away and decided to rest his eyes on the table. Despite the new surroundings and the whole cast of characters in the room, Tate figured it was best to keep his reactions to a minimum.

Watts cleared his throat as he looked over at Tate. "I thought it would be helpful to introduce you to some of my colleagues in this room." He gestured to the burly man. "That is Hazel." Then he pointed to other. "And that is Tyrian."

Tate leaned forward on the table and held up a hand, doing his best to show no expression on his face. "Hi. Good to see you guys. Call me Tate."

Tyrian giggled and rubbed his hands together as if Tate were a fresh piece of meat.

Of course Watts easily much more adept at getting on Tate's nerves.

"So. Perhaps we can get a little bit more acquainted with you and your…" He cleared his throat. "Girlfriend. Ma-"

Tate had to stop him right there. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Don't say things like that, Tommy. Did you even think to factor in our ages before you made such a flippant comment?"

Watts stopped short and then put a hand on his chest. "My name is Watts. I can understand how someone like you could forget something so simple so easily, but-

"I know your name. I just thought Tommy would suit you better."

"You really don't know what you're getting into do you? Do you believe that running your mouth in our presence will make you seem more intelligent?" Watts's voice dropped lower and had a slightly threatening tone to it.

"No. But if you thought intentionally provoking me wouldn't yield some backlash then you're more socially inept that I thought."

There was the sound of a lock being turned, before the door jerked open with the metallic sound of a bar being pulled back. The door creaked open slowly, and a woman emerged from the doors. Everyone stood up immediately, and being the one closest to the doors, Tate got a first look at her.

Immediately, he noticed that he couldn't see her legs. He couldn't tell if she didn't have any legs in the first place, or if they were being obscured by her long dress. The dress was a complete dark, purple with glaring red symbols on the back. What Tate found the most frightening, however, was her face. It was white like the color of a dead person's skull. Red and purple veins protruded out of her face like branches, and black ribbons bound up her white hair with ornaments attached to them.

As she walked she made no sound except for the jangling of the ornaments on her head. She didn't face the table or acknowledge anyone there. Instead, she slowly walked past the table and continued facing the wall as if nobody was in the room.

Tate would have preferred she yell out instead of the silent treatment she was giving them.

For a moment she stared at the candles flickering at the front of the room. Without turning around, she spoke up.

"Watts?"

There was complete silence in the room. Then she turned around. "Do you find it necessary to goad our newcomers?"

Without waiting for an immediate answer, she gestured for everyone to take a seat.

"I'm apologize, ma'am." Watts stayed standing. "But I did not see the purpose of bringing these two on board. Forgive me if I treated them with…little respect."

"Are you questioning my judgment, Watts?"

"No, ma'am. Not at all." Watts took a seat himself. Inwardly, Tate began to squirm. That woman clearly commanded utmost respect if she could put Watts in his place.

"Good." She sat down finally, and fixed Tate and Cinder a glance. "Young Cinder here has already been introduced to me. However, Tate, this is your first time. You may call me Salem."

Tate merely nodded to acknowledge her. It was all he could do to not glance over at Cinder and glare at her for probably leaking information about him.

Her eyes turned away from Tate and towards the center of the table. "I can understand your concern, Watts. However, if we are to possess the powers of the Fall Maiden and elsewhere, we need a vessel. Furthermore, I believe her age will come to some assistance. She is young and that allows her plenty of time to ensure long-term success."

"Alright. Well, I hope she proves herself in the field." Watts's tone still held some doubt, but for all intents and purposes, he was doing his best to keep himself subdued.

"The pair's arrival has been rather timely. We have been planning to strike Atlas. Watts has been working on something that might give us more insight as well as control of the CCT network. Watts, I presume you will be finished soon with that?" Salem rested her elbows on the table and intertwined her fingers.

"Yes. I just need to upgrade my work that will allow me to reach…well." Watts glanced over at Tate as if Tate were a spy. "…The more sensitive parts of the Atlas network."

Salem and Watts exchanged glances as if something was unspoken between them. Doubt began to creep into Tate's mind. Not even more than a month into his journey, and he was already getting sucked up into an orchestrated attack on a foreign country. Watts had a damn good reason to be vague on details around Tate.

"Hazel. Have you made any progress with establishing contact with the White Fang?"

"I have. However, they are reluctant to work with a human faction. That being said, I have profiled some White Fang members that might be slightly more open to cooperation."

"Good. They just need to see past the barriers and understand that we have mutual goals when it comes down to it." Salem stood up, and looked towards the center of the table. "The plan doesn't change. However, with the arrival of more helpers, the plan should expedite far more quickly. That should mean that your tasks should be completed much sooner than before. Does everyone understand that?"

There was a murmur of agreement through the table.

"Dismissed." Salem said curtly. Watts, Hazel, and Tyrian stood up and quickly began exiting the room. Tate looked to his left and right, before he too stood up and began walking towards the exit.

"Not you." The tension in the room suddenly became so thick that Tate felt that he could hardly breathe. He turned around slowly and began walking mechanically back towards the table.

"Take a seat here." Salem patted the seat directly adjacent to her. Tate almost wanted to refuse, but then again, he was also too scared to refuse either. He slowed his walk to delay what was to come next as much as possible.

Cinder stood up too, but she lingered around Salem as if she expected something. Salem noticed and nodded to Cinder. "You are dismissed as well." Cinder bowed, and then exited the room. As Tate took a seat next to Salem, the only noise in the room was the clicking of Cinder's heels on the floor and then the massive doors slamming shut.

Salem peeled her eyes away from Cinder was before and rested her chin on the back of her hands. "I noticed that you seem very uncomfortable. I understand. Young Cinder here was also uncomfortable when I first found her, but she opened up to me as we spoke. You have taught her well."

Tate didn't know exactly how to respond other than to thank her for the comment.

"Thank you." Another question he wanted to ask her was: WHAT did Cinder tell you? But he bit his tongue and stayed silent.

"Were you worried about her? I apologize for not informing you of her absence sooner."

"I was worried but it's nothing I can't handle."

"I see. Likewise, your background is rather impressive. For someone so young, Cinder has learned the more important lessons of life." She paused and then locked eyes with Tate. "…Even about the necessity of taking the life of another." Her voice lowered, and inwardly Tate felt guilt and shame wash over him.

"Don't worry." Salem soothed. "Sooner or later, Cinder would have to learn that. Do you think hunters and huntresses are really innocent? They are taught specifically to kill. They're slaves to the headmasters of the schools, and the corrupt, tyrannical military regimes working alongside them. The detective that you met is merely a symptom of the unfair, biased judicial systems. You were right Tate. You had to take a stand there."

Tate's eyes widened. This was the first time he was hearing of any of this. He lowered his head. "But at Cinder's age, now I see that the lesson I taught her was inappropriate."

"Cinder is not as young as you think, Tate. She's an adult now. It is better that she come to grasp these truths sooner rather than later. If you help us Tate, you're paving the way for a better future for Cinder and future people like Cinder."

"I guess I never thought about it that way."

"You read about the Great War, yes? A lot of it was the fault of the headmasters who work for military generals who in turn control a vast array of loyal hunters and huntresses. We're working to destroy this system and give room for more honest folk to make it into positions of power. So that we don't have innocents like Cinder being indicted on no credible ground."

Tate nodded. "I understand. However, I read that the creatures of Grim-"

"Disturbing, yes as you may have experienced when you encountered it back in the village. But I assure you they are under my control. They are merely a military asset."

"Are you sure you have control?" Tate was thinking back to how CELL thought they could control the Alpha Ceph, while all the scientists and top Spec-Ops operatives expressed doubts.

"Yes."

A low rumbling sound could be heard echoing through the room like a rattle. Tate turned around and instantly regretted asking the question. There was a floating Grimm that looked like a squid except that it was a mass of tentacles with blades coming out the ends. Salem stood up and held out a hand to the Grimm creature. She watched as it came to a stop above her hand, before she glanced back at Tate.

"You can see now. Work with me, and we can undo an unjust system. Work against me, and…" She didn't need to finish her sentence. "I hope you can become a military asset to us as well. Visit Watts and craft yourself a better weapon. Until you do that, you're all talk and no action."

Tate could only manage a "Yes, Ma'am", before he got up and did his best to exit the room without looking like he was in a hurry.

 _It's a one-way contract with some harsh terms of agreement._


	7. Chapter 7: Loyalty Mission

For the next several weeks, Tate busied himself with Watts in the Weapons Workshop. Watts was insufferable as always, but really less insufferable when he was deep in his work. When he wasn't with Watts, he trained a bit with Hazel with hand to hand. Although he had basic CQC training back in his time with CELL, it would be helpful to know what was different here. Besides, it was a lot better than wandering the halls and worrying about bumping into Salem. The less probability of bumping into Salem, the better.

Hazel wasn't always around, so Tate found himself with Watts a lot more often. However, Tate wasn't going to lie and say that crafting his own personal weapon in a foreign world wasn't exciting.

"I don't use swords." Tate leaned back on the wooden chair, as he surveyed the blueprints that Watts had given him. He flipped a page. "I haven't trained in spears, axes, scythes, or even gauntlets for that matter."

There was a sigh from Watts as he circled his workbench. He rested his head on his forehead, before looking back at Tate and gesturing to Tate in disbelief. "Alright, but you have to give me an option here. I'd personally recommend both a mix of ranged and melee in your weapon. It can't always be just ranged, especially given the future tasks Salem might have for you."

Tate set the blueprint down abruptly on his lap. "What future tasks?" He felt a sudden cold sweat break out on his back.

"Don't change the subject. I'm sure she'll fill you in later." Watts smirked, clearly taking pleasure in Tate's discomfort.

Tate's face paled, and he brought the blueprints back up to his face to hide the fact. Then, he yanked his Majestic 6 out of his holster and threw it onto the work table. The metal clattered loudly on the table and Watts winced. "I still want something like this as a backup. For my main weapon, I'd like this one." Tate held up one of the blueprints and tapped his finger on one of the displays. It was a weapon that resembled something like an M14, except Tate bet it probably had five times the stopping force.

Watts nodded, his forehead crinkling as if he was imagining crafting the weapon. "I can do that, and provide different types of ammunition for it. However, I fear such a weapon would serve poorly in a close quarters combat situation."

Tate shrugged as he stood up, rolled up the blueprint, and then threw it onto the table. "Attach a bayonet to it or something. Maybe add some electrical components to it as well. I'm sure it'll be fine." He yawned, and stretched his hands into the air. Then he rubbed the back of his head. "It's late. I'll be back to pick it up later."

Watts picked the corner of his moustache. "When it's ready, I'll call you over. I can't have people disturbing my work." The last thing Tate saw when he left the room was Watts picking up a welder.

* * *

Tate's hand closed around the doorknob as he turned it slowly and timidly. The door opened with the sound of metal on metal, before it slowly creaked open. The first thing he saw was Salem sitting at the head of the table, resting her chin on both of her hands.

He suppressed a gulp, before closing the door behind him without looking back. As he walked up to the seat next to her, the only thing he could hear was the sound of his own footsteps. _Deep breath, Tate. You can't always be like this when you see her._

"There's no need to sit so formally. It shouldn't be long." Salem said. Tate stopped in midstride, before standing still with his hands behind his back in front of her.

"I suppose before we begin, you would be curious about what Cinder is up to? Understandable as a teacher should care for their student."

"It's not a big deal, but go ahead and shoot." Tate tried to pass it off as if it was nothing, although inside he was dying of curiosity.

"You've taught Cinder how to obtain power. But I will grant her real physical power. She has been staying with me for the time being to learn of her new abilities. I'm sure you will understand."

Tate didn't exactly know what that meant, so he simply nodded. If he had to guess, Salem was probably training Cinder in combat. That wasn't something Tate could do, because this world's style of combat was so vastly different than the one he knew. Cinder liked using bows and swords, and Tate liked guns…what could he really teach?

"That's not to devalue the lessons you taught Cinder. When I'm finished, Cinder expressed that she wanted to go back to Mistral and form her team as you said. I admire her intelligence and quick-thinking. But as you taught Cinder, I also admire…loyalty."

The word seemingly echoed through the chamber almost as if it were a challenge. "If she's building a team, that's what she needs." Tate echoed.

"I'm not talking about just Cinder. It's not just about Cinder, it's also about Watts, Hazel, Tyrian, and you Tate. Do not think you are merely a support in the background. You are part of our team now."

She leaned forward and the table and her chair squeaked with her movements, as she fixed her eyes on Tate intensely. "You've seen the injustice of Mistral firsthand. If you hope to secure a better future for others just like Cinder, then you must follow my exact words. For your sake, and Cinder's sake. Not even just Cinder, but many more that are like her. Is that clear?"

Tate swallowed and nodded. "I can do that." The "for your sake" part was crystal clear to him at least.

"Good. Then I wish to give you a chance to prove yourself. Tyrian and Hazel have dealt with the likes of Huntresses and Hunters before. I too wish to give you that opportunity." She reached under the table and then set a scroll on the surface. A name and picture popped up, displaying a woman with flowing black hair, and a green dress. Tate looked more closely and saw that her name was "Eileen." Ultimately, that didn't matter to Tate, because she was going to be called "dead" very soon.

"Hazel tracked her location, but has held off to allow you the opportunity."

"Thank you." Tate took the scroll and slipped it into his pocket. While Tate didn't enjoy killing, if Salem was right about securing a better future for people like Cinder, this was a way to start. He didn't have to like Salem's methods. It wasn't personal. It was just realpolitik.

"Your weapon should be waiting for you with Watts. Oh, and there should be another visitor waiting for you there as well."

* * *

Tate had taken his sweet time with observing Eileen. He didn't want to jump in headfirst and find out that he was hideously outmatched. Training with Hazel was great, but frankly there was no way he'd match a huntress hand to hand given the years of training they had.

Tate was going to flat out just cheat, but he would have to find ways of doing that first. He was sitting on a boulder besides a dirt path leading up to a pretty large house ahead.

Big house for a rich huntress. Tate wondered what jobs she did that got her so rich. He swigged a can of grape soda, finishing the last drops, before tossing it on the dirt path. He crushed it beneath his feet and then shouldered his rifle. Looking through the scope, he saw that the windows were pitch black.

Eileen wasn't a late sleeper. She consistently had been sleeping around midnight and waking up at around 7 am. It was a pretty normal sleep schedule, which Tate was grateful for. No one would be crazy enough to stay up until 4 am.

Except him.

However, there wasn't any vantage point where he could plink away at her window. Her figure wasn't visible through it anyway. That made things harder for him, because that meant he would have to enter the house. Luckily, she didn't seem to have any groundskeepers or servants around. She didn't seem to be married either. Tate vaguely wondered if anyone was going to miss her once he did the act. Would there be phones ringing looking for her?

He shook his head, as he stood up and clutched his rifle with one hand. Quietly, he walked up to the front-door. He couldn't even hear crickets around him. It was just the sound of his boots crushing granules of sand underneath. Tate hummed quietly to himself as he leaned the rifle against the door and took out two slender pieces of metal. He inserted one piece in, and then used the other piece to fiddle around with the rotation.

Tension was making his fingers shake and for a good 10 minutes, he was picking the lock. Finally, he felt the second piece rotate something and then slowly the lock gave way. Tate pocketed the pieces and opened the door as slowly as he could. He flicked on a lighter so that he could see in the darkness.

The door didn't even creak. Inside, he could see a large living room with marble underneath leading up to a grand staircase that had an entrance on both the right and left side. Tate took the stairs, doing his best to test each step. As he walked up, he flicked off the safety of his rifle. The sound of clicking metal sounded almost deafening in the quiet.

At the top of the steps, the lighter suddenly went out. Tate quietly cursed under his breath. He rested his thumb on the wheel of the lighter and flicked down. As the flame sprang back to life, he walked down the hallway.

She left her bedroom door open and pale moonlight streamed through and illuminated her figure. As combat pilots would say, she was lit up like a Christmas tree. Tate kneeled and shouldered his rifle, aiming in her direction. He shouldn't have the scope at this range, so he lowered it from the rail. He breathed in slowly looking through the iron sights instead and then placed his finger on the trigger.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something flash in the moonlight. It looked like metal. Tate turned lightning quick and held up his rifle with both hands to block it. There was a clang of metal on metal, and Tate saw a man wearing a robe and wielding a candle stick holder.

So, she did have a servant after all. It's just that the guy never went outside. This was a mistake that Tate would have to remember in the future if he ever got out of this. Tate turned the rifle and slammed the butt into the man's face. The man went flying back and fell over into his own room. An 18-inch knife suddenly protruded from Tate's rifle with a hiss of metal through the air, churning with blue electricity and Tate jabbed forward into the man's stomach. The sheer amount of voltage cracked the servant's weak aura like an egg, and then the bayonet went easily through the man's stomach.

When Tate withdrew the bayonet, it was covered in blood. He felt a shiver go down his back.

"Who is there?" a voice called out in panic from the other room. Tate shouldered his rifle and emerged from the servant's room. Shots rang out, but Eileen sidestepped to the right and left and easily dodged the rounds.

So, this is what Watts meant by having a melee option. Eileen grabbed something from the floor, which looked like a sword-spear and then swung the weapon around in the air like she was testing it.

Tate quickly began backing down the hallway, but he continued firing. Eileen held the sword spear with both hands, and the rounds merely deflected off. That's when Tate turned on his heel and fled down the hallway. Just in time, because a blade whisked through the air right where he used to be standing. Eileen shot forward lightning quick and then kicked Tate right in the chest at the top of the stairwell. Tate went airborne and then smashed right the stair's railings and onto the marble floor. It cracked as Tate slammed right into it.

Grunting, Tate scrambled to his feet. He rolled to the side just as Eileen jumped down and buried her blade into the marble floor.

Tate got back up and backed away hurriedly as Eileen pulled her blade free from the floor.

"You're going to ruin your pretty house at this rate. Hope you got insurance." Tate quipped.

"Who are you?" Eileen demanded.

"I don't think it's going to matter for you very soon." Tate replied. He stopped backing away and held his rifle in a stance. He was exhilarated. Before he had aura, he doubted he could have dodged that swing much less survived that fall. But now he could, and he never felt more alive.

Eileen charged forward with a yell and swung at Tate. Tate ducked as the blade swung over his head. Eileen swung again and Tate threw himself back, barely dodging it that time. Then she swung with both hands from the side, and Tate held up his rifle to block it. Unlike the servant, her attacks were a lot more powerful.

Tate skidded across the marble floor with the impact, and he could smell burnt rubber on his shoes from the friction generated from sliding across the floor.

She then held up her weapon to the sky, and air began revolving around the blade. Then she spun around and slashed her sword in the direction of Tate. Tate only saw something that looked like a white line coming toward him and he threw himself to the side. Not fast enough. He felt a sharp pain go through him, and his aura barely managed to block most of it. Blood was trickling down his forehead, and he could feel a little wetness behind his clothes on his stomach.

"What the hell was that? Was that a wind-blade?" Tate barely managed to finish his sentence, before he had to dodge to the side again as another one of those wind blades sailed past him and tore right into the dining room.

Tate rolled and went to his feet. Dramatically, he pulled the bayonet free from the rifle and the rifle clattered to the floor. He then charged at Eileen, who merely smirked and blocked his clumsy blow.

Except with his other hand, he discharged Watt's modified Majestic 6 twice at her. The slugs imbued with electricity slammed into her, and as she went airborne, blue lightning coursed throughout her entire body. She screamed in agony and her entire body flashed with the same pattern as when the Tate blew up the detective.

She hit the ground on her back and gasped for breath. She reached weakly for her weapon, but Tate kicked it out of her grasp and towards the side. Then he reached down and grabbed his rifle to place the bayonet back onto the rail.

"If you're going to kill me, then answer me this. Who sent you?" She spat out blood as she glared defiantly at him.

Tate shrugged. "Why do you need to know? You're going to die anyway." He planted his foot down on her forehead and then reached down and tore the necklace from her neck. "You and your friends have been strutting around, throwing your weight around on the people below for too long. I think it's time for a change."

Her eyes went wide with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about your joke of a law enforcement and justice system."

Eileen turned her head weakly, but she looked genuinely confused, which confused Tate. "Where did you hear th-"

From behind Tate, there was the sound of an arrow flitting through the air. It buried itself into Eileen's throat and she began choking and gasping as blood began pooling in her mouth.

High-heels clicked on the marble floor, revealing Cinder walking towards the two with a torch in hand. She flicked the torch off to the side and then the stairwell quickly began catching fire.

"Let's go. Don't think there will be much left of us, much less her if we stay too long." Tate headed for the exit, already beginning to cough from the smoke. Cinder watched Eileen for a little while longer before she too decided to take her leave.

* * *

 **And there we go. I finally updated! Sorry for the big wait, but life hit hard. I still want to continue this fic, and so I recommend you hit the follow button to get a notification when a chapter updates, because it's not going to be a regular schedule.**

 **Anyway, maybe some of you are wondering if Tate did a 360 and really dived deep into the dark side. I'd say no. Remember, Tate is foreign to Remnant so what he sees and hears at face value is what he believes. Salem is a good liar and knows she can sway him with not only fear, but also ideals.**


	8. Chapter 8: Merc and Mercury

Tate turned, and swung his rifle bayonet in an arc at Cinder. Cinder blocked with two upraised swords, and the force of the blow sent her sliding across the stone floor. Her shoes carved up two great trenches in the stone floor.

As the stone splinters were tossed into the air, Cinder dropped both of her swords and raised her hands. The splinters suspended in the air suddenly coalesced with their nearby neighbors into sharp, deadly blades. Cinder waved a hand and sent the wave at Tate. Tate spun his rifle with both hands in a circle and blocked most of the blades. Some still went on through and struck different parts of his body, sending him flying back.

Tate landed on his back with a grunt. Cinder leaped upward and then jumped down on him with her two swords in hand. Tate barely managed to block, and the force of the two-weapons clashing cracked the stone floor beneath them. Cinder leaped off and flipped backward, and Tate did a kick flip to land himself back on his feet.

On the sidelines, Mercury and Emerald watched. Emerald had her hand over his mouth in sheer amazement, while Mercury watched with an impassive expression on his face with his arms crossed. Tate turned back to Cinder, and they began circling each other. Instinctively, Tate ran a hand over the scar on his face from when he was struck by a Wind Blade from a huntress he had been assigned to kill. It's been several years since that incident, and the wounds he sustained that mission had manifested as scars, serving as a grim reminder that Tate was outmatched by most hunters and huntresses when it came to hand to hand combat. It was only through his luck that Tate had managed to off that particular huntress. Most likely, the huntress had let her guard down when she saw the difference in skill level between them.

Since then, Salem hadn't sent him on any more missions. The news of the huntress's death didn't take too long to spread, and Salem said it would best to lay low for now. In the meantime, Tate trained with Hazel mostly and only Cinder just recently to hone both of their combat skills. It was during those sessions with Hazel that Tate learned that Hazel could stab himself with dust crystals to augment his abilities at least three-fold. Many holes in the wall and the floor were created by none other than Tate's body himself. Tate had always ended up forfeiting before his aura cracked, feeling a little frustrated that he couldn't seem to discover his semblance or best Hazel.

Cinder combined both the swords together into a bow and fired off three arrows at Tate's feet. Tate back-flipped out of the way just as three separate explosions punched three craters in the floor where he had just been. Tate ran off to the side and took potshots at Cinder with his rifle at his shoulder. Cinder jumped off to the side and dodged the bullets, before holding up both of her swords and blocking more of them as she closed the gap between her and Tate. She jumped up and kicked at Tate's chest. Tate was sent flying back into a wall, and he barely managed to move to the side as Cinder buried her swords in the wall where he used to be. Cinder pulled her swords out of the wall and swung at Tate from the side, and Tate held up the rifle to block the blow. However, this time Cinder's swords chopped Tate's rifle in half.

Tate held both pieces of the rifle with disgust. So much for Watt's engineering prowess.

Tate dropped the two useless blocks of metal, which clattered to the floor and then he whipped out his pistol. Cinder kicked it upward out of his hands, and with her other leg kicked Tate in the face. Tate was spun around by the blow and he grasped at his face as he stumbled backward. Before he could react, Cinder's sword flashed and Tate was lying on a heap on the floor. Cursing, Tate pushed himself to his feet with his arms and looked at Cinder. Cinder was still holding both of her swords, as she looked at him with amusement. Tate looked back at Emerald and Mercury, his face flushed at being humiliated in front of them.

Over the course of those few years, Cinder had minimal contact with Tate. She was always with Salem, being trained in things that she refused to speak about. Of course, at least some of the components would have to be combat, because Cinder had improved to an astonishingly impressive degree. But now, her training was completed and Cinder had requested that Tate accompany her to Mistral to build her team. After seeing her, Tate observed that with age, Cinder increased in not only height and beauty, but also ruthlessness and cunning. However, initially, Tate was skeptical about Emerald and Mercury when Cinder introduced them to him, because of their age. Cinder assured him that their backgrounds and their motivations would be absolutely key. Emerald was a thief that was raised in a life of poverty. Unlike most thieves, Emerald would be one nearly impossible to catch. Cinder observed that Emerald had been using illusions as a method for her thievery. Mercury, on the other hand, was straight up an assassin. He killed his father, which was supposed to be a hot-shot and the original choice for Cinder's team. But after seeing Mercury fight, Cinder figured that Mercury would make an equally good fit. Tate had agreed reluctantly and then bought a house to prepare for their arrival.

Cinder whipped out a flask of dust. Crystals flew out in an arc around her, and with a wave of her hand, the deadly shards were sent flying at Tate. Next thing he knew Tate was sitting with his back to the wall, tasting something wet and coppery in his mouth. His body rippled with black color, as his aura broke and merely dissipated. His vision was spinning from having hit his head so hard on the wall.

For a moment, he was taken back to the Fulton Hydro dam. The sound his body made when it hit the wall was the same sound Tate had heard right before he slammed into a boulder at the excess of 60 m/s. Tate always marveled at the strength of Prophet. With his nigh invincible Nanosuit, Prophet torn through CELL's elite Spec-Ops like a hot-knife through wet tissue paper. Speaking of which, there was only one other thing that Tate remembered clearly tearing through squads with the same strength and speed as Prophet.

Ceph Stalkers. They were six feet tall biomechanical squids wrapped in a powerful exoskeleton. They were so fucking tough, that they could afford having their guts protruding out of the gaps in their exoskeletons. While years of warfare have taught humans the advantages of a long-range projectile weapon, Ceph Stalkers gave that concept the middle finger as they laid into CELL squads with _swords_ as if they were medieval swordsmen.

 _I want that sword_. Tate thought, with his stomach churning from the pain he had just experienced.

He heard metal on metal as Cinder trailed her swords on the ground, throwing up a trail of sparks. "Do you forfeit?" She teased.

 _"Bill, RIGHT BEHIND YOU. ON YOUR SIX!" A Stalker burst out of the grass and its arm blades flashed twice. Bill's body was torn apart like a fish that was filleted, and fell with a wet sound on the floor. His blood sprayed across the grass like a fountain, staining the grass and turning the dirt below into mud._

 _Tate fell over backward, his gun falling from his hand in shock. The Stalker's head turned with a mechanical hydraulic whine as it turned to its next victim. With a screech, it leapt at Tate. A deafening explosion sounded from above Tate, and a shockwave flattened the grass all around Tate. A 60-mm grenade had impacted into the Ceph, and its guts sprayed across the grass, the purple hue mixing with the red as its exoskeleton fell on the grass with a heavy thud. With a hiss of metal, the Ceph's arm blade fell right beside Tate and impaled itself into the hard-packed dirt. Tentatively, Tate grasped the blade with his right hand._

With a flash of metal, Cinder was sent sliding back. Her mouth was open in shock, and when she came to a stop, her arms hung limply at her sides. Tate noticed that her eyes were uncharacteristically wide from both a look of slight fear, and surprise. From the sidelines, Tate could hear a slight gasp come from Emerald. Even Mercury had uncrossed his arms and had leaned forward to get a closer look.

In his hands, Tate was grasping the very Ceph Stalker monomolecular blade. He stared at the blade for a moment, marveling at the balance in weight. Tate then stabbed the blade into the ground, and it dissipated into dust and crumpled into an ash pile on the floor.

He looked up at Cinder. Cinder had regained her composure, and she now hung her swords at her back. "Are we finished here?" She said, keeping her voice as calm as possible.

"Yeah."

* * *

Tate placed a glass on the table and held up a flask right above it. The brown liquid came out and mixed with the ice, sending it to the top. With a grunt, Tate placed the flask down and held the glass to his mouth and began taking large gulps.

Mercury eyed the flask, and then his arm slowly reached for it. With the glass still at his lips, Tate held up a hand and waggled a finger at him. Mercury withdrew his hand. Sitting next to him, Emerald giggled slightly

Tate set the glass down heavily on the table. "Don't get into the habit." He grabbed the flask and placed it back into the cabinet.

Cinder emerged from the kitchen and placed a couple plates of food at the table. Emerald quickly reached for it, even before it had touched the surface. Tate cringed a little as he heard Emerald's characteristic loud smacking of food as if she hadn't eaten for years. Of course, it was understandable given Emerald's background, but Tate wished she'd get over it.

Without looking at Emerald and Mercury as she placed the food on the table, Cinder turned over to Tate. "That was unexpected." She began.

Tate shrugged. "I mean, you'd think getting slammed into the wall by Hazel would have activated the semblance by now. I guess I'm a slow learner."

Cinder took a seat herself at the table. "The timing couldn't have better. I was worried we'd have to push the agenda back so that you can get repairs. But this revelation means we can push the plan earlier than expected."

Tate, Mercury, and Emerald all exchanged glances.

"What exactly are we talking about?" Mercury asked.

Cinder set down her fork and leaned forward. "We're going to take down the Fall Maiden."

Mercury spit out his food all over the table. Emerald instantly recoiled in disgust and pushed Mercury away. "Gross!"

Mercury sheepishly wiped at the table with his napkin. All throughout, Cinder didn't bat an eye.

"They're like demi-gods, aren't they?" Tate asked. "Are you sure we can take her down? It's four versus one, but…"

"Not all Maidens know how to wield their great power correctly. Remember, a Maiden's power is often transferred to the person that they last think about. It can be very likely that the wielder may not have been ready to take on such responsibility."

Tate hadn't remembered that fact. "Okay." He didn't want to voice the other possibility of the Maiden being actually competent. "As long as you know what you're doing…"

"Have a little bit more faith, Tate." Cinder teased. "After all, several years ago, you wouldn't even have dreamed of having aura, much less unlocked your semblance."

"Several years ago, I didn't expect you to almost kill me either." Tate said sarcastically.

"Enough with the love bird talk." Mercury said, holding up his hands in quotations. "What's the plan?"

Cinder dropped her fork, and then fixed Mercury a glance so venomous that it could have flayed the wood off the wall. Tate leaned back and crossed his arms. Mercury coughed. "Sorry, ma'am."

"You should watch what you say, Mercury." Emerald chimed in with a mouth full of food. "It hasn't been the first time."

"Just…" Tate sighed, as he leaned his head on his hand. "Be cool, ok?"

"Emerald's right." Cinder agreed. Emerald's eyes widened a little bit, but then lowered it to hide the fact that she was beaming from Cinder's approval. "Once we track the Fall Maiden's location, Emerald can set up a trap using her illusions. With the element of surprise, Mercury and Emerald can initiate the first attack. Tate and I can come in for the second wave."

Tate pointed his fork at Mercury. "Mercury just…has metal legs, doesn't he?"

"Yeah? What's it to you?" Mercury's eyes narrowed.

"Never mind." Tate cut off the conversation on purpose. He loved getting under Mercury's skin.

Mercury leaned forward, growling a little under his breath.

"Enough." Cinder said coldly, as she flashed a glare at Tate. "Assuming she has superior combat ability, we need to attack from multiple different directions. She can't expect to deflect all our attacks at once. If we keep up the attacks relentlessly, eventually she will get overwhelmed. That's when I can pull out my strongest attacks and hopefully break her aura. I'll go a little more into detail as it comes closer to that day. But I expect you all to train together in the meanwhile and more importantly, learn to fight together as a team." With that, she picked up her plate and went back into the kitchen.

Tate watched her go, and looked at the two younger ones at the table with an expression of disbelief.

"You heard the boss." Emerald said, with a slight smile.

"Well if anything, the difficulty is going to come from Mercury, not you." Tate said, shooting a glance at Mercury to see his reaction.

Mercury rolled his eyes. "I'm a team player. Really." He set his metal leg heavily on the table, and began fiddling with it with his screwdriver. In the process, he almost knocked over Emerald's plate. Emerald looked at Mercury with a look of irritation, before picking up her plate and going into the kitchen where Cinder was.

Tate regarded Mercury for a moment as he chewed his food. Then he reached over and yanked the screwdriver hard to the right.

"OW!" Mercury cried out, almost falling over backward. He grabbed the screwdriver and glared at Tate.

"Oops." Tate said unapologetically, as he flicked on the television. Just as quickly as the television turned on, it quickly shut off again. Tate looked to the kitchen doorway, seeing Cinder standing there with the remote and looking extremely displeased. Emerald was right behind her.

"As a team…" Cinder repeated. She tossed the remote roughly on the table, before walking past the dining table and into her bedroom.

"Alright. Alright." Tate and Mercury said at the same time hastily. Then both of the them reached for the remote.

* * *

 **And there we have it. Finally another chapter! Hope you all enjoyed and like I said before, I post randomly so hitting the follow button would be more helpful to allow you to be notified of future chapters.**


	9. Chapter 9: Fly Caught in Amber

Tate felt someone shake his shoulder, and the dream he had instantly vanished into thin air. Gradually, his surroundings came to him. It was completely dark with the exception of a crack of moonlight shining through the window sill over his face.

He rolled over and noticed someone standing beside his bed.

"Training." Cinder whispered.

Tate looked at the fogged up window and how a draft of cold air was wafting across his face. His entire body was sore in places that he didn't even think was possible. It was probably the fact that aura allowed him to take hits that would otherwise render him into meaty chunks. Even his arm was throbbing from the just the mere action of moving aside part of the blanket.

"Later." He muttered, before rolling and turning his back on Cinder. For a moment, there was a pause before Cinder shook his shoulder again. When Tate didn't respond, he felt part of the bed sink as Cinder took a seat on the bed.

He found that odd, but he was too tired to object. Gradually, the warmth under the blankets was regathering and he let himself sink back to sleep.

When he woke up briefly, it was still dark outside meaning he hadn't been asleep for too long. Even in the dark, Tate could see Cinder still sitting where she was in the beginning of the night. Except this time, her head was bowed a little bit so that her hair was covering her face. The deep breathing coming from her nose indicated that she might have accidentally fallen asleep.

"Hey." Tate reached over and shook her by the shoulder. Cinder woke up with a start, her movement moving the swords on her back with a metallic jangle. She looked around groggily and also slightly confused.

"Here." Tate sat up fully and moved aside to give her more space to sit. "I want to talk to you really briefly." Cinder didn't say anything, as she scooted over to sit right beside Tate.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Well." Tate shrugged. "I think you're pushing yourself a little too hard. You should get some rest these days and let your strength recuperate. We have some time before the mission."

"If we let ourselves slack and grow soft, then that would only jeopardize our mission." Cinder argued, albeit a little subdued. Clearly, she was exhausted from their daily sparring together.

"See?" Tate pointed out. "You're not even sounding so convinced yourself." He chuckled, as he lightly pushed Cinder to get off his bed. "Go to bed. And I don't want to see you pushing yourself too hard tomorrow you hear me? Do something fun with Emerald or something." Wordlessly, Cinder stood back up and began walking back out the door, her heels softly clicking on the wooden floor. Then she turned around. "I guess you're right then. I will do something with Emerald tomorrow."

"Good. Now get out of here."

"Thanks." Cinder flashed him a tired smile, before closing the door lightly. As Tate watched her go, he shook his head slightly. Whether Cinder grew older, it didn't really matter for him. Although Cinder technically lead the squad and called most of the shots and Tate deferred to her judgment, she was still his trainee to him. Cinder probably knew that herself. Luckily, she didn't seem to have a problem with that dynamic, for now.

"Finally, some peace." Tate muttered, as he pulled the blankets back over him.

* * *

Tate walked down the stairs lightly, rubbing the back of his head with a towel, he noticed Mercury sitting alone at the living room couch. Mercury was eating a bowl of cereal on his lap and watching television. Emerald and Cinder were nowhere to be seen.

So, she ended up following his advice after all. He just hoped that Cinder's definition of fun didn't mean sparring with Emerald OUTSIDE somewhere.

"You know where Cinder went?" Tate asked Mercury. He sat beside Mercury and grabbed the box of cereal.

"No idea. She just took Emerald and walked out somewhere. They had some packed bags."

"Great, so that means I'm stuck here with you then for a few days, right?" Tate poured milk over his cereal, but looked to the side to see if Mercury was giving him the stink eye.

"Whatever." Mercury said, with an impassive expression on his face. He slammed his feet down noisily on the coffee table, as he switched between channels idly.

"Better be careful with those legs of yours." Tate pointed out with his spoon. "If you're too rough with them, they might break from all those times I kicked your ass." He wasn't completely wrong. Mercury was good and learned fast, but Tate simply had more experience. Also, when Tate's semblance activated, it always threw Mercury off. However, by now Mercury had memorized what weapon Tate conjured up in different situations. So, Tate would counter that by just focusing on being good at the Stalker blade in particular so that Mercury couldn't throw out his counters at the others.

Mercury snorted, throwing up a single lock of his hair. "Yeah right. Old man." He smirked.

Tate shrugged, shoveling a spoonful of cereal in his mouth. "Thirty-five is a good age to be at." He set down his bowl on the coffee table and leaned back with his head resting behind his hands.

"Well. Emerald, me, and you have been working well as a team in all seriousness. I think I may even have grown to like you guys. So, don't die on me alright?" Tate said, a bit out of the blue. Mercury turned his head in surprise with skepticism all over his face. When he saw that it didn't quite seem sarcastic, his face relaxed.

Then he leaned forward, placing both of his hands on his cheeks. "Aww…so you do care about u-"

Tate shoved Mercury back. "Shut up. Your face plastered against the floor would equally also give me infinite joy."

Mercury continued laughing, before propelling himself off the couch with the sound of two gunshots. Tate covered his ears as a shrill sound of ringing emanated in his ears.

"Show off." Tate yelled after him, before throwing the remote after the fleeing assassin. The remote missed and punched a small hole in the wall. "Damn it."

* * *

Mercury and Tate were crouched behind a boulder in a grassy field surrounding a path that lead into a forest. Tate held his scroll to his mouth and whispered, "Is the target in sight?"

"Yes. Make that two."

"Two?" Tate and Mercury exchanged glances. Amber wasn't supposed to have an escort. Did she get tipped off?

"Yes. Two. Can you even count or do I need to teach you how to?" The voice behind the scroll dripped with condescension.

Tate flicked the mute button on the scroll, before looking at Mercury in exasperation. "Who is this guy?"

Mercury shrugged. "Never met him. Cinder just kind of dropped him on us."

Tate sighed as he rested his face on one palm. Maybe telling Cinder to do something "fun" with Emerald wasn't such great advice after all. Maybe if he hadn't told her that, Cinder wouldn't have picked up this asshole.

"For the record, between the two of us, this was a bad decision. What does Emerald think?"

"Emerald thinks whatever Cinder thinks." Mercury snorted.

Tate unmuted himself, and rolled his eyes. "I read you loud and clear. Let Emerald do her thing then. We'll just have to be extra cautious." He paused for a moment, before whispering "Prick."

"What was that?" There was a hint of anger behind the scroll.

"Nothing." Tate shut off the scroll and quickly pocketed it. Mercury moved closer to Tate and grinned. "I'm not so bad, now am I?"

"Shut up. You're just lucky someone else worse than you showed up." Tate said, keeping his eyes on the path. Up ahead, he could see Amber riding a horse and another huntress walking beside her. Both seemed to be dressed similarly, and Tate couldn't really tell if they were from Vale, Mistral, or Atlas.

"They're stopping now." Mercury observed. Amber pulled back on the reins to make her horse come to a stop. Some kind of peculiar smell seemed to carry through the wind, smelling like a mixture of blood, rot, and filth. Tate gagged reflexively, before looking up at Mercury with slight embarrassment.

"Sorry about that."

"Someone needs to take a shower." Mercury agreed.

Amber walked up to where Emerald's illusion was supposed to be. However, when the huntress besides her also walked up and changed her cane into that of a viscous teeth-like blade, Tate knew something was up. Tate and Mercury looked at each other. "I don't think she got fooled." Mercury said, quickly scrambling to his feet.

Then the huntress growled and screamed, "I smell her!" Emerald leapt back, caught off guard by the moment. She drew her guns and leaped to the side, barely enough to block the chain whip from taking her head. The erratic strike still struck her in her cheeks. Emerald fell over onto her back

Tate summoned a DSG into his hands and racked the bolt. "I got you, Emerald." He shouldered it and opened fire. The bullets struck home and but didn't strike an Aura barrier. The first lands at the side of the huntress's rib cage, spewing blood from the hole and then the second high-velocity bullet seemingly tore her throat out. Yet, the huntress didn't fold over and collapse like any other non-aura being should have. Tate lowered his rifle in sheer dumb shock. "Wait. What?"

Emerald fell onto her back, shocked as the blood splashed over her. She seemed to be simply paralyzed by the gore fest in front of her and the fact that the huntress did not fall. She merely stumbled before it roared liked a mad beast. She hunched over with red eyes gleaming and crimson rivers bleeding from her jaws and injuries. The huntress barely looked human for a moment and it charged into her. Grappling, twisting her up and over to slam Emerald onto the hard dirt.

"This is wrong! It feels so wrong! Why doesn't she have aura!? How is she alive!?" Emerald screamed. She tried to scramble to her feet just as a massive stone hammer slammed right into her torso. Her body flashed as her aura crumbled, and Emerald fell onto the floor in an unconscious heap.

Three rockets streaked out of the forest and then arced down onto the huntress and Amber. Three massive explosions sounded off as the two held up their hands reflexively to shield themselves.

"Guess he was good for something." Tate muttered as he and Mercury charged down the field towards the stunned pair. Tate dropped the DSG on the floor, which quickly crumbled into ash. Instead, he summoned back the Stalker blade and leaped over the fence simultaneously with Mercury. Mercury jumped and kicked down on Amber, who blocked both feet with her staff. Tate vaulted over the fence and swung the Stalker blade at the huntress who attempted to block with the stone hammer. The blade sliced right through the hammer, spraying chunks of stone into the huntress's face, who growled as she stumbled backward.

Amber pointed her staff at Mercury and Tate and sent them flying back with a gust of powerful wind. Tate and Mercury both dug two trenches into the path as they slid to a stop.

For a moment, there was a brief lull in the battle. Then, Amber's eyes lit up with two plumes of flame and she slowly hovered and began taking to the air. The wind began picking up rapidly, and it seemed as if the clouds were getting thicker and darker.

Tate would have loved to gawk at the appearance, but it was time to move as the other huntress began charging full on towards the pair. She turned and spun with her blade, forcing Tate to block. They then both began to exchange blows, metal clashing as they parried and blocked each other's blows. Mercury stormed over and kicked the huntress in the legs, torso, and head in rapid succession forcing the huntress back from Tate. As Tate leaped forward for the killing blow, he could hear thunder pealing over the clouds.

Amber was holding up her hands, and Tate had a feeling that he knew what Amber was going to do. "Dodge." He barely managed to gasp out as he and Mercury jumped off to the sides. Thunder crashed and exploded craters of dirt where they used to be. Dust shot up in the air, engulfing the pair in a choking and blinding dust.

"That's overpowered." Tate muttered, coughing. Mercury was about to agree when he was grabbed by the other huntress who moved frighteningly quick. She grabbed Mercury's arm and kneed him twice in the torso, before slamming the pommel of her sword into his face. Mercury fell over backward clutching his face. Tate ran up from behind and fired a summoned M12 Nova into her back. The bullets tore out sections below her shoulder, but the huntress kicked out behind her and her foot slammed into Tate's gut. Tate fell over onto his back and flew through the wooden fence, smashing it into splinters.

His vision went all blurry and Tate rolled over trying to catch his breath. Through the blur, he saw Cinder come charging out of the forest. Amber shot a fireball at her, throwing chunks of the path into the air. Cinder dodged to the side and held out her hand and instantly crystalized the debris into deadly blades. She sent them over as a wave and Amber let out a cry of pain as she was knocked over into the air and onto the ground.

Cinder charged at Amber with both of her swords out. Even unarmed, Amber was still able to counter Cinder's blows and she sent Cinder sliding away as she kicked out. The other huntress turned her back on Tate and Mercury and charged towards Cinder to attack her from behind.

"Not so fast." Tate stuck out his right hand. A fist-sized blue portal opened up, and Tate grabbed the front of a Jackal Shotgun. He wielded it one-handed as he narrowed one eye to focus his aim. Then he squeezed the trigger once. The hammer slammed upward, and sent a flurry of high-density pellets at the back of the huntress's knee. The huntress staggered, roaring with pain. Tate aimed a little higher and fired. This time he kept his finger on the trigger, activating the automatic mechanism on it.

This time she fell over like a puppet whose strings have been cut. Tate hoped that it meant she was dead for real.

Too bad for Tate, the huntress seemed to lift her head off the floor and twitch. Mercury leaped over Tate's body and ran down the path. He used the huntress's head as a platform to leap off of, slamming her face right back into the dirt.

Cinder continued exchanging blows with Amber. However, Amber was forced to swivel around and block with both hands as Mercury kicked out with both feet from behind. There was flash of metal and Amber screamed as Cinder cut her down from behind.

She shot out a flash of lightning from the ground from one hand, throwing Mercury off and away into the distance, and a fireball at Cinder to knock her away. She stood up shakily, looking around for her staff.

Tate stood up from the other side of the path and their eyes met. Tate dropped the Jackal shotgun projection and formed a Stalker blade in his hands. The staff was right between them. They charged at each other and Tate swung at Amber in a move that should have decapitated her. Instead she rolled to dodge the blade, grabbed the staff, and used the remaining momentum to roll to her feet.

Amber shot out a plume of flame from her staff, and Tate back flipped to the side, using the fence as a means to propel himself backward.

"Uh. Cinder! A little help here!" Just then three arrows landed beside Amber and then exploded in three flashes of flame. Amber flew backward, screaming in agony as her aura seemingly finally gave in.

Instinctively, Tate hopped over the fence and slashed at her, while she was still airborne. His blade opened up a decently deep gash on her back and Amber fell over onto her back, gasping in pain.

She rolled over, coming face to face with a pool of her own blood.

Cinder walked over and lifted Amber by the chin with one hand, as she prepped the other glove on her other hand. Tate walked past her, his eye instead on the other abnormal huntress who seemed to still be moving.

Cinder and Tate's eyes locked. "Turn on your scroll." She ordered. As Tate flipped his scroll back on, he could hear the sounds of Amber's pained screams echoing into the day. He didn't know what Cinder was doing exactly, but from what she told of him…it was like a leech that sucked out the power of maidens.

The huntress had rolled over onto her back, but Tate planted a foot on her forehead.

"What the hell are you?" He asked. He flicked her hat away with the tip of his blade, and giving him a full view of the huntress's face. She only glared at him with pure hatred emanating from her eyes.

Even wounded, she still struggled even more, squirming as best she can and trying to reach for her weapon. Tate stabbed the blade into the arm that was trying to reach out. He paused. Could she even die if he stabbed her in the heart? There was only one way to find out. Tate took his combat knife out of the sheathe on his leg and then rammed it right into the huntress's heart.

"You have incoming." The scroll chirped. Tate whipped around, just in time to see another hunter appear out of nowhere and almost slice Cinder's hand off. He ran towards this new hunter and who pointed some kind of oversized sword at him and popped off a couple shots at Tate.

Tate flicked his blade thrice, knocking the rounds into the dirt. He almost didn't block the last one. It was still a fairly new trade for him. Then the hunter spun around to swing his sword at him, but midway it transformed into a scythe and nearly bisected Tate who leaped backward. The scythe had nicked a part of his aura, but even from that blow, Tate knew he could have been a goner.

That's when Tate saw Cinder take to the air just as Amber did. Except only one of her eyes had a plume of flame. Regardless, three fire auras formed and began spinning underneath Amber and the new hunter. The hunter picked up and Amber and leaped forward as the path exploded and cratered into an over-sized pit.

At this point, it might not even have been a path anymore. Tate took the opportunity to pick up Emerald and drape her over his shoulder before fleeing into the forest. Cinder was right behind him. After all, they had gotten what they came for. Or, at least Cinder did. Mercury was seen running down the grass behind the fence toward the tree line as well.

As Tate ran into the forest, the last thing he saw when he looked back was the new hunter picking up the other huntress off the floor and running in the opposite direction.

* * *

 **And there we have it, another update. Now you might be tired of having so many battle sequences recently, but I assure you, the next few chapters I will be keeping that at a minimum. We'll be reaching V1 soon, and since Tate can't exactly cosplay as a student, things are going to be different.**

 **In addition, you might be asking yourself, who was that huntress besides Amber? And why didn't she have aura? And who is Cinder's new recruit? These are questions I won't give answers to. Feel free to speculate in the reviews or send me a PM.**

 **And as always, I update on an irregular schedule and for the next chapters, I'm probably going to update not very often as school is beginning to ramp up. So hit the follow button to get notifications on updates. Thanks for reading.**


	10. Chapter 10: Roman Around

Down the hall could be heard the echoing, menacing sound of shoes echoing down the wooden hall. The hallway was mostly dark, lit up only by sparse torches spaced out over the long hallway. At the end of the hall was a partially, cracked open door with streams of light filtering through.

Tate held up his hands and knocked twice on the open door of the main office at the end of the hall. With the motion, the door swung open on its hinges and squeaked.

"Who is it?" A man with graying hair and a graying beard stood up abruptly, squinting at Tate as Tate slowly entered into the room. Tate stood in front of the door and closed it behind him softly.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Tate reached behind his back and produced a folder. He threw it at the man's feet. "Read it." He held out a palm. "Go ahead. I promise you it's not booby trapped."

The man hesitated, before slowly bending over and picking up the folder. As he began shifting through the papers, Tate walked up the desk and picked up the place-card on the man's desk. He turned it over.

"Richard Lionheart huh? Headmaster of Haven Academy..." Without so much of a thought, he dismissively tossed it on the floor.

Lionheart looked up. "Who…Who is this…Ms. Fall?"

"Someone your school rejected. Quite unfairly too."

Lionheart paused after hearing that. Then he stammered.

"I-I'm sorry, but our school cannot accept all students. We are a competitive- "

"Rigged. It was rigged." Tate interrupted. He slammed his fist angrily on the desk and pointed an accusing finger at Lionheart. "You're the headmaster. Don't tell me you didn't handle this case personally, considering it involved the higher ups of Mistral government agencies."

Lionheart gulped. "So, what did you want me to do? Look my hands were tied. There wasn't much I could do. I-no we-"

"Here's what you can do. Just lie down on the floor and die for me."

A moment of silence passed between the two, before Lionheart held up his hand, revealing a disk-shaped weapon strapped to his wrist. He tuned a dial and fired off a flaming rock. Instantly, Tate summoned a Ceph Stalker Blade into his hand and sliced the rock in half so that the twin floating halves fell harmlessly at each side. Then, he stabbed the blade into the ground and produced a MOAR, a heavy cylindrical weapon that glowed neon blue on both sides.

Tate fired off a bluish ray, and Lionheart quickly held up the disk to block. Within seconds, the surface was covered in ice. Lionheart fumbled with the disk, finding that he couldn't turn it.

Within seconds of his confusion, Tate had planted his foot on his chest, knocking him over, before placing the Stalker Blade painfully on the headmaster's throat.

"Strange. I was expecting a bit more than that." Tate said, removing the blade from the headmaster's throat, and placing his foot on his neck instead. He leaned forward and rested his blade on his shoulder. "Luckily for you. You're not entirely useless. Well, at least not to Salem…"

Tate dropped the blade and it hit the ground and dissolved into dust. He turned his back on the fallen headmaster and began walking away casually. He glanced at his watch as he left. "On schedule…" He muttered.

Lionheart scrambled to his feet and slammed his disk against the desk to dislodge the ice blocking its mechanism. He pointed the weapon at Tate's back. "Hey! You think you can just walk out of here?!" Tate yanked open the door and turned slightly around.

"I can. But not you." As Tate spoke, a strange, crackling, gurgling sound could be heard. A black, and white oblong, squid-like creature pushed past Tate and into the room. The tentacles hanging off its body sported deadly blades as the creature advanced with cold, calculating purpose toward the now cowering headmaster who was backing himself into a corner.

"Maybe you can sing a little, and charm it long enough for you to live a little while longer. Good night." With that, Tate slammed the door behind him.

* * *

Tate heard the jangling of keys behind him and turned around to see Cinder saunter up to the front porch. She smiled at him as she dangled the keys from her fingers and Tate took it quickly and pocketed it. He turned away and looked about the apartment, giving a low whistle under his breath.

"Housing don't come cheap in Vale. What's it for?"

"For you." Cinder said simply. Tate instantly felt his heart flutter, and he felt faint-headed. He glanced once more at the balcony and the screen door. "No way. I get this all to myself?"

"Yes. Me, Emerald, and Mercury will be on-campus. So, given your age, we figured it would be best for you to remain…outside."

"I can do that." Tate said, scratching his chin, already contemplating what he could do with this near luxury apartment. He turned on his heel however. "So…no details. You guys staying on campus to expand your minds or what?" He said sarcastically.

Cinder shook her head. "There isn't much time to explain. Salem is on a tight timeline and putting you in the loop would be…well…redundant, especially considering you won't be playing much of a part, well, until later."

"Alright. A need to know basis. Gotcha." Tate held up his hands in mock surrender. Cinder cocked her head to the side. "What was that?" She seemed genuinely ignorant of that term.

"Never mind. Speaking of which…where did you get the money?"

"About that." Cinder looked behind her just as a black car pulled up to the apartment.

"Well, hello!" A man dressed in a white trench coat and top-hat with a cigar hanging out of his mouth walked out of the car. A smaller girl with two different colored eyes with one being strawberry and other chocolate, held open the door for the man.

Tate looked at Cinder once, before pointing a finger. "Who the hell are these bozos?"

Cinder stepped to the side to let the two newcomers walk up to the porch. "That is Roman." She pointed to the man. "And his associate, Neo. They are-"

"Whoa whoa whoa. Bozos? Do you not know who you are standing before? The greatest criminal in all of Vale?" Roman twirled his cane once, before taking the cigar out of his mouth and squinting at Tate as if inspecting him.

"Never heard of you." Tate said abruptly. He turned to Cinder and gave her the evil eye. "What did I say about hiring random people? I mean Mr. Stock, or Spock, or whatever that megalomaniac's name was is bad enough, but I mean these two?"

"They are vital to the mission." Cinder said, a matter of factly.

"How so? We a bit short on cartoon villains, is that why? I mean, what the hell, I don't know jack squat about the plan here. Been mostly running around doing errands for our mistress, while you been writing the master plan…" Tate held up both of his hands in quotation marks. "…while, also apparently executing parts of it without my knowledge."

"Hey. Hey." Roman tapped his cane twice on the floor for emphasis. "You're looking at the greatest thief in Vale. I got floor to ceiling piles of Dust sitting in warehouses. What have you been doing that could have possibly been relevant?"

"Busy doing some clean up on some stray hunters and huntresses, why? I mean, maybe I can finish by taking out the trash." Tate cracked his knuckles as he glared at Roman. Beside Roman, Neo tensed and stepped forward grasping her umbrella.

"Alright, that's enough." Cinder's pupils abruptly changed to that of a fiery flame, indicating she was quickly losing patience. "We don't have time for personal feuds." She glanced at Tate. "I'm sorry for not communicating. But we simply don't have the time. I don't even believe Watts or Hazel are completely in the loop either."

"I say, we don't have time for people like Roman here." Tate shot back. "He's going to attract every soldier and android Remnant's got on the continent. Maybe even some professional Atlesian battalions while we're at it. Why not add them to the laundry list of problems we got to deal with?"

Cinder let a small smile escape her lips. "That's exactly the plan."

Tate paused to let that sink in. He then turned slowly to Cinder and gave her a look as if she were crazy. "No way." The rest didn't answer him, but by the looks on their faces, there was clearly something they knew that he didn't. But it didn't take a genius to connect the dots.

Tate shrugged. "Well I guess no one really wants soldiers near their homes in peacetime…right?"

"Civil unrest." Roman finished the sentence.

"Grimm." Cinder finished next.

"Alright, alright. I get your drift." Tate faced Roman and squared up his shoulders. Together, they shook hands, but Tate pointed a finger aggressively at Roman. "Don't think you're off the hook yet though. If this plan goes wrong in anyway…"

"Roman will fill you in. Focus on your role and we'll focus on our own." Cinder said, cutting off all argument.

"Well, this is great news!" Roman clapped his hands together. "Now." He tapped on Tate's shoulder. "So, when can you start?"

* * *

Tate walked into the warehouse, carrying a bottle of pills and a box of tea leaves in both hands. His eyes were bloodshot, his nose was stuffed, his stomach felt funny to the point of nausea, and everything just felt unbearably hot. Despite the symptoms, Tate could tell that around the warehouse, there was a clear sign of something having been moved. New crates of dust, weapons, and…wounded White fang members?

Behind some shipping containers, Tate could hear Roman shouting to some White Fang members in an angry, raised voice. Up close, he could see the White Fang members sitting on the ground with bandages over their heads and limbs as they nodded meekly to the raging Roman.

"What the hell happened here? Did Cinder tell you to move all this crap…" Tate kicked one of the crates and knocked it over. "From the Portside location to here?" Tate looked around. "Is there even any space left here?"

Roman turned around furiously, waving his cane around in angry gestures. "Where the hell were YOU all day?"

"What do you mean, where the hell were you? I thought I told you I'm out of commission like the whole damn day!"

Roman stomped over, leaning heavily on the cane and pointing a gloved hand directly into Tate's face. "What do you mean? You just took a day off without telling me? Cinder would-"

"I thought I- "Tate glanced around the room, until he fixed his eyes on a White Fang Member with small horns protruding out of her head. "Hey, didn't I tell you to let Roman know that I was going to be gone the whole day?"

She gulped and both Tate and Roman threw up their hands and rolled their eyes at the same time.

"These animals!" Roman blurted out first.

"Ok. Ok. Ok. Just." Tate stopped talking and closed his eyes, before reopening them. "Why is this place so crowded all of a sudden? Portside get attacked?"

"It's those students. They just keep getting weirder and weirder! Two of them were some of the strangest Faunus I've seen in my life."

"A couple students sabotaged one of the most complex, and experienced criminal syndicate operation in the history of Vale…and being weird Faunus don't exactly give them super powers does it? They still bleed the same."

"Not one. Not two. But six students!"

"How many White Fang personnel were present there again?"

"Tate. Did you really need to ask that question?" Roman said sarcastically. Both of them glanced over at the soldiers around them. One of them was picking his nose, while the other was carrying his gun the wrong way. "You could have stopped them. If you were there."

"I don't think I would have done much good when I'm sick like I got the Black Death or something."

Roman blinked and stared blankly at Tate.

Tate waved a hand. "You know what? Forget it. How are we going to explain this to Cinder?"

"They stole some material too." Roman said, his voice getting a little softer.

"You don't mean…Mr. Stock's…" Tate trailed off and Roman nodded. Tate threw his hands up in the air. "Great. Just great. And I don't suppose Cinder is going to take my sickness or the White Fang's incompetency as a good excuse."

Roman pointed one hand. "Your fault. You take the hit on this one."

"No way, man. This was your operation."

"It's like that time where you showed up late when little red crashed our little robbery at the Dust shop."

"I wasn't even supposed to be there. It was a small robbery. We were meant to keep it low key."

"A little help would have been nice! After all, Cinder does give you lots of credit for your combat ability!" Roman scoffed.

"Why in god's name was Neo not there? Isn't she your girlfriend or something?"

Roman turned beet red. "You keep her out of this! Like I said, we were keeping it low key."

"Then what was the point of bringing this moot argument up in the first place!"

"BECAUSE-BECAUSE…just…take the hit on this one, would you Tate? Be a dear." Roman put his arm around Tate's shoulder in an attempt to act friendly.

Tate pushed his arm off.

"I don't owe you anything. I break my back for you, beating up factory guards and carrying heavy boxes on my already aging back day after day..."

"You know Cinder better than anybody…she'll kill me."

"Fine. I'll tell Cinder that I was absent and you tell her that you simply just fucked up there. That way we'll both take the blame. She can't kill us both after all."

"That is a terrible…terrible plan. Do you honestly think- "

"Take it or leave it."

"Fine." Roman placed another cigar in his mouth and took a long inhale.

"So, is that it? Are we clear?" Tate held up both of his hands, before slowly walking backward away from Roman.

"Yes. Before you go, I need you to do me one more favor." Roman stepped forward and slipped a piece of paper into Tate's front pocket. "No more heists for now for you. This is top priority. I want you to stay posted at one of the factories. Top tech, top dollar. You get me?"

Tate frowned and took the piece of paper out of his pocket and skimmed it. Then he nodded. "Alright. I have one job, sounds easy enough." He slipped the paper back in, before gingery stepping over the crate that he knocked over. Then he turned around and squinted.

"Seems like the students didn't have trouble finding the portside facility. You sure this factory is hidden?"

"Positive." Roman made an "ok" sign with his hand.

"Fine. As the age-old question goes, what could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

 **Hey, sorry I haven't been updating for a while. Got busy and a little overwhelmed. Managed to squeeze out a chapter and I'm sorry if there's little action and big time skips. For your reference, this whole chapter is one big summary of the events that happened in V1 of RWBY. Since Tate is old and can't pass off as student and not much plot progression happened in V1 anyway, this is why this chapter is written as so. HOWEVER, don't get too disheartened. Next chapters are going to be exciting and there is going to be a huge twist that I'm sure you'll all enjoy. So stay tuned and thanks for reading!**


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